


No One's Here To Sleep

by itsajbaby



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, Jasie, Slow Burn, dreams are jasie territory sorry i dont make the rules, this is my first ao3 fic dont kill me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:46:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23233450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsajbaby/pseuds/itsajbaby
Summary: Jade tries this whole Salvatore School thing again. And things would be going great if she wasn't riddled with dreams of Josie every night. She's pretty sure Josie is slowly going crazy and she's the only one watching her lose her mind.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman, Hope Mikaelson/Lizzie Saltzman, Jade/Dark!Josie, Jade/Josie Saltzman, Jade/Wendy (Legacies), Kaleb Hawkins & Jade, Milton "MG" Greasley & Jade
Comments: 30
Kudos: 270





	1. The First Snow

The first time she has a dream of Josie, Jade’s too confused to figure out what’s happening.

It’s late, the moonlight is filtering through the window with such intensity, she momentarily wonders if it’s a full moon or not. She’s in a large dorm room with two full-size beds, one untouched, neatly folded blankets on top of one and other, the other bed used, with a tall, fair blonde starfished across the top. Lizzie Saltzman, Jade recognizes her from the surgical table she’d be similarly sprawled across hours earlier. Her chest rises and falls with no concern for delicacy or quietness, she’s in her safest environment. The sound of pencil scratchings pull Jade from Lizzie to the wall parallel to the bed, a long brown table sits against it. The table is cluttered with books and papers, all sorts of makeup and perfume bottles that all blend into a sparkly mess. But in the epicenter is a neatly organized center where an open notebook lays and Josie Saltzman writing in it. Jade can’t move to greet her, not that she’s sure she even would. She feels like she’s intruding on something private.

Where Lizzie is deep in sleep, Josie is deep in thought. Her long, slender, olive fingers are gripping a black gel ink pen, that rushes across the page in jagged, rapid moments. Like she’s trying to solve a math problem but she’s repeatedly finding the wrong solution. Jade’s eyes roam the desk, looking for the open textbook, but instead, there’s nothing – beyond the mess. Whatever Josie’s trying to solve, it’s nothing that can be found in a textbook. Josie momentarily picks up the pace, the sound of paper and pen growing, almost filling the room, the sound echoing and echoing until Josie stops. She stares down at the page, her jaw tight, agitated, the skin pulling forward where Jade imagines she’s furrowing her eyebrows. Her mouth pouting.

A wind suddenly moves through the room, the moonlit window opening a smidge. It must’ve been tugged open behind the field winds outside. Jade exhales at the cool feeling, the hair on her arms rising – she wonders what she’s wearing in her dream to feel so cold. She can’t feel her sweater, she can’t feel anything. She can only see. Josie’s head rises suddenly, and she turns back in one smooth turn, her dark piercing eyes locking on Jade with a look Jade can’t describe any way other than fear.

“Jade?”

Jade wakes up with a violent shake that inadvertently causes her to smack Wendy in the face with the back of her palm. Wendy groans, smacking Jade’s hand away. The blonde girl sits up, keeping her extremities away from Wendy as she leans forward, head falling onto her bent knees as she tries to regain control of her breathing. Her hand still moves to her heart, beating, albeit slower than the average human. She focuses on that; her breaths match it eventually.

“The fuck is up with you?” Wendy asks with a grumble, as she crawls out of her adjacent sleeping bag with a pointed frown, moving to the small bags of clothes given to them. Wendy unashamedly pulls off her sweater to grab another from the bag. Jade lifts her head slowly, her fingers moving back through her tangled blonde hair to massage her pulsating temples. “Weird dream, sorry.” She says, her voice mangled and rough. She’s thirsty, she realizes half a moment later. When is she not, she notes wiry.

“If you’re having some freaky sex dream, do it outside, I don’t need bruises because of you.” Jade looks back to the changing Wendy, genuinely looking for any sort of bruises. Wendy waits, hand cocked on her shoulder with a challenging arched eyebrow, half-dressed in tight jeans and an old sports bra. No bruises insight. 

Jade rolls her eyes but looks away, letting any spiteful response die on her tongue. Although they had all spent the last 10 years killing each other in the prison world, Jade still remembers nights of running after a fearful begging Wendy as the insufferable, hungry, no-humanity Jade chased with no plans to relent. Jade hates the way she remembers how Wendy’s blood tastes.

Jade tosses off her covers with a quiet sigh, moving to grab her bag of clothes and drag it to the half-assed, dusty bathroom left for them. She shuts the door behind her as she hears Wendy’s departing footsteps. Jade lets herself breathe when the only sound she can hear is the rough slosh of water through the showerhead and the soft chirps of Salvatore’s infamous morning birds.

Jade never feels more awkward than the moment she sits across Alaric’s mighty mahogany desk in a new Salvatore coat and skirt, the metallic school seal sitting against her left bicep as Alaric quietly judges her from across the way. Jade hates how much he looks like Josie. Or how much Josie looks like him. From the dark eyes, the way their mouth settles. Jade probably shouldn’t think about Josie this much. Oops.

“You want to..re-enroll at Salvatore?” Jade nods once, blue eyes darting from Alaric to the dark stain on the floor beside the desk back to Alaric. It was probably bourbon, she could smell it on his breath. He tilts his head, clearly unsatisfied with her singular answer. She resists the urge to sigh as she lifts her head and clears her throat. “I never got to finish my school year last time.”

“Finishing your schooling as a vampire isn’t a high priority. I’m sure you got the gist.”

“But other vampire students get to go here, you don’t tell them to forget school when they show up on your doorstep.” She retorts quickly, swallowing a dry wad of spit a moment later. “Caroline wouldn’t.” Alaric’s eyes dark dangerously at the mention, but Jade won’t give him the chance to go on a tirade.

“Listen, I get the only experiences you’ve had with me is trouble, but –“ She swallows again, making a mental note to visit the blood bank. “I just want to finish school, dude. I didn’t even get to graduate high school when I was turned. Can’t I get one the natural way before I have to lie about my age for the rest of my life?”

“You’re a hazard for the other students.”

“And so is every other ripper enrolled, but you find a way for them.”

“Rippers are not enrolled.”

“Not willing, no one knows they’re one until it’s happening.” She counters with a shake in her face, she breaths deeply to steady her chest. Alaric watches the moment as if she’s a rabid dog and it pisses her off to no end. “I’ll pay my tuition.”

“That would be a given, your scholarship was voided years ago.”

“I’ll earn my spot then, damn it.” Alaric’s fist slams down on the desk and Jade only flinches instinctually, moving back into the comfort of her loveseat chair, even though she could snap his neck before he even blinks. His eyes shut, considering his choices. She takes the moment to speak.

“I know I hurt those kids. I took their lives and that will live with me forever, but you owe me the chance to finish the life I started before you sent me away.” His jaw sets – another startling similarity to Josie – before his dark eyes open. “If you step out of line once, you’re out.”

“I know.”

“You’ll have a companion student.”

“I know – wait, what?” Alaric smirks a personal win.

“MG. A ripper like you. He has to companion you to every extra-curricular event..that you’re permitted to go to.” This time Jade can’t fight the roll of her eyes. “He’ll check in with you from time to time. If he ever feels like you’re losing it, you’re out.”  
Jade just loves how much her enrollment depends on one kid, almost as if Alaric was willing to get any reason to kick her out. She binds her mouth shut and gives him a stiff nod.

“I made a mistake. I didn’t recognize your emotions were off, maybe things would be different, you’d be different if I had. But I don’t regret sending you away. And I won’t regret doing it again if you hurt someone.”  
Jade bites the inside of her cheek, her sharp polars poking into the soft skin, drawing the slightest of blood, but she nods again, eyes on her chipped, short nails instead of the man who must revel in her shame.

“Go visit Emma, you’ll get your class assignments. Don’t expect anything fun.”

She’s out the door before he can see her tears. Asshole, fucking asshole.

Emma is much nicer than Alaric. Way more pity for Jade, too. Jade is too shaken up to be anything other than thankful for it. Pity only feels like a hairline away from sympathy and Jade’s just desperate enough to take it. It’s in her office, reviewing the class sheets and trying to find space in the leftover vampire courses, that Emma asks about the lodging situation. Jade’s short, but quick fingers still in the thick of her administration papers, inquisitive eyes rising to meet Emma’s with a quirked eyebrow.

“Dorms?”

Emma nods as if encouraging Jade to say more. “Yes, did Alaric tell you who you could dorm with?” Jade shakes his head and Emma sighs, moving to reach back to the dorms cabinet behind her. “I don’t think he wants me to move in, probably wants me to stay in the mill.”

“The mill is hardly inhabitable.” 

This is true. For every second breath you take in there, you’re inhaling a web and years’ worth of dust.

“Ay, ay.” Jade agrees to which Emma grins in response, her dark eyes roaming the dormitory folder she pulled from the cabinet. Jade watches her, tongue flicking the same polar in the corner of her mouth, a habit she’s managed to maintain even in vampirism.  
“It’s you, Wendy, and Diego, right?”

“Diego left sometime during the night, right now it’s Wendy and me.”

Good riddance, Diego. Out of the three of them, that god awful night, Diego was the one murdering kids just to murder them. Wolf-anger be damned. 

Diego was just a natural-born killer. Wendy…Jade always had a sneaking suspicion Wendy was only helping Jade cover-up, they were friends, once. Even in the prison world, Wendy was never maliciously evil. Maybe Wendy pitied her. And Jade, with her humanity off, was as bad off as Diego. God help them all.

“And is she enrolling too?” Jade shrugs, fingers picking the ends of her skirt, the article of clothing a hair too short for her frame. “No idea, she barely talks to me.”

Emma grimaces sympathetically, meeting Jade’s gaze as she shuts the folder. “There’s hardly any appropriate dorm space unless you’d like to be sharing it with the grade-schoolers.” Jade chuckles at that.

“But, I won’t have you living in less than inhabitable conditions. Even as a vampire, we still have schooling conditions we need to meet to. I will talk with Alaric and discuss renovating the old mill, perhaps that could be your project in your Architectural class with Professor Arnold.”

Ironically enough, he was the same old bat from her schooling days. Professor Arnold was a man who would never die. Even if he smoked two packs of cigarettes a day.

“I don’t know if Alaric –“ Emma arches an eyebrow at the lack of proper address but Jade steels on. “-will grant any materials if it involves me. He has a hate boner for me.”

“A hate boner?” She asks, incredulously. Jade nods once, albeit slowly, puckering her lips amusingly. “A hate boner.” She confirms. Emma shakes her head with a small laugh of disbelief. Their whole interaction felt so light, Jade could consider coming back if this whole schooling thing got too intense.

“I’ll make it happen, Jade. Rest assured. You best head to dinner now, before they run out of blood bags.”


	2. Your Fist Sets a Precedent

The first time Jade meets MG, its on the back end of her Architectural course with Professor Arnold, where she emerges from the woodshop covered in thousand of little woodchips – the smug Arnold a few feet behind her. “You will get there, Jade, that is if you want your little mill makeover,” He calls out. Jade would’ve flipped him off, if she wasn’t the last one to leave – a solid two hours after the end of class – and if this lean, human ball of energy wasn’t pacing back and forth in the hallway, like he was heading to war.

“MG?” She calls out tentatively, slowly approaching the boy. The phone she hadn’t seen in his hand is abruptly slipped into his pocket after he ends the end call button and turns to her. His brown eyes are wide and crazy. “Oh my god, what happened to you?”  
She nearly forgot she was covered in woodchips. “Oh yeah,” 

She pulls her hair into a bun, pulling the tight band off her wrist and slipping it around the large wad of curly, incessant hair with ease. 

“Professor Arnold likes to break in the new recruits.”  
He made her carve out a fucking door. Said that was the first thing they needed to work on after walking to the old mill after class. Jade grimaced as he went through at least three cigarettes on their walk to. She hoped they had a spell for litter. Salvatore wasn’t Hogwarts, they didn’t have a race of obedient elves to do all the cleaning.

“Oh yeah, are you, like, liking the class?” She arches an eyebrow. “Dude, is that what you’re here for or are you here to check in on me? Give me the rules of the land,” She says, moving past him, only slightly annoyed as the sight of bourbon rises off his clothes. He must’ve just come from Alaric’s office. The little shit.

“Uh, yeah, I came to check on you, but not in a mandatory companion way, but in a normal human way.”

“We’re not human, we’re rippers.” She feels the need to remind her, as she brushes off the chips from her sweater, as they move away from woodshop and enter the normal hallways that could lead them anywhere else in school. Jade wonders if she could shower before grabbing some food. Real food for once. She has a stupid wild craving for fries. Fuck, she hasn’t had fries in years. “Yeah, but that’s not all we are. Jade –“ MG reaches forward to stop Jade in her tracks and she spins around to stop him in his steps. Jade shakes off his grip with a dangerous glint in her eyes. “I’m sorry, just,” He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I know Headmaster Saltzman –“ She arches an eyebrow, again. “-Alaric, can be a dick. He’s a little ripper sensitive and I think seeing you makes him feel super bad about the prison world stuff.”  
She continues dusting off herself, as he speaks.

“I’m not here to make you feel like you’re on probation or something, I just want to- here.” He takes his phone back out of his pocket and holds it out. It’s unlocked and waiting. Jade could see the most recent call notification being Josie.  
“Your number.” He says a moment after. “If you need someone to hang out with or talk to, that won’t treat you like a case waiting to happen, you’ll have my number.”

Jade looks up and over to him – he wasn’t much taller than she was. What she finds is just a general, openly warm expression. An expression that ultimately makes her sigh and take the damn phone. He was too nice, she felt like she didn’t deserve it. “And how do I know you won’t just forward all my messages to Alaric so he won’t spy on me.” She murmurs, speedily typing in the number of the new iphone sitting in the back of her back.

“I don’t even have Alaric’s number, gross.” She laughs at that and MG noticeably relaxes at the sound. “Wanna go grab dinner? I know where they hide the secret blood bags. Caleb will save some for you too if you introduce yourself.”

“Thanks, but no thanks, I’ve got a million micro splinters to clean.” MG grimaces, eyes roaming to take in the full damage before nodding. “Oh yeah, for sure, next time. See you around, Jade,” He walks around her and down the hall. Moments later, Jade feels the vibration of a text in her bag. Then another, then one last one before it ultimately goes quiet. As she walks back to the mill, she finds dozens of emojis attached to the single message: Milton Greasley, the best non double agent companion ever.  
What a guy.

Unlike last time, where Jade’s dream came on the precipice of dawn, right before she needed to wake up, this dream pulls her in as soon as her head hits the pillow. It’s the mill, oddly enough. Hers, but the room is empty. No wendy, no mess left by Diego, just her, her sleeping bag and Josie standing in the doorway, the newly installed door laying open. The moonlight silhouettes Josie in a bright light, but Jade knows its her. She can sense it.  
“Josie?”

“Why were you there, last night? Did you dream project?” Her voice is soft, but urgent. Scared. Jade wants to stand up and reassure her, but she doesn’t, she doesn’t want to scare Josie away. “What? No, I thought you pulled me into it or something.”

“Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know, I just thought you did.”

Josie wavers on her heels, leaning back for a moment before ultimately stepping in. Her hair is pulled up in a bun, an old Salvatore hoodie sitting on her shoulders with an even older pair of sweats. Jade feels her lips twinge into a small smile. “I’m sorry to have disturbed your sleep.”

Josie looks down. “Oh shut up, I didn’t – I didn’t dress for an occasion.” Jade chuckles and looks down. “No, no, it’s fine. Just teasing you, you look comfortable.”

“You look…” She stops to really look around the mill, it must be then she realizes how unappealing of a place this was to sleep in. Jade feels a sympathetic grimace form. “Uncomfortable.” She finishes a moment later. “Why’s Dad making you sleep here?”  
“He’d rather keep me away from the general populace, even if it means my spine is in jeopardy.”

Josie rolls her eyes. “Your spine will be fine.”

“You sure? Feels in jeopardy –“

“Why am I being pulled here?”

Jade lets her go back to looking around, her tongue sliding against her molar. “When I went here originally, I snuck off here to get some peace of mind, maybe that’s what you’re looking for.”

Josie frowns, eyebrows pulling together like Jade predicted the night before. Her lips pout. Jade grins to herself. If Josie wasn’t so tense, Jade might’ve let herself call Josie cute. “But I’m fine.”

“Are you?” Jade challenges, moving the top of her sleeping bag off. Josie looks over at the action, her own fingers going to anxiously play with the ends of her hoodie. Jade follows the action. She wants to say I won’t hurt you, but instead she wonders why Josie would even think that.

“Did you ever figure out whatever you were writing in that notebook?” Josie’s eyes flash. Not dangerously, but other contexts, Jade would certainly feel threatened. “How long were you watching me?”  
“I wasn’t watching you, I was just…there. I noticed you is all.”

“You noticed me?” Josie asks, incredulously. “Don’t you think I have better things to do than spy on the Headmasters’ daughter? I like having all 8 hours of sleep.”

“This must be a spell.” Josie says turning away sharply to reproach the open door, leaning out of it to peer up at the night sky. Jade’s head tilts to follow her. “Then who cast it? And why?”

“I don’t know, I just know we’re not actually sleeping. We’re just meeting –“ Josie gestures to the place. “-here. For some reason.”

“Do we have any control of it?” Josie shakes her head, looking back to Jade with a small frown. “Wow, my feelings are wounded, Jos.”

“I’m serious, Jade. I don’t. I’ll –“ She exhales sharply, looking back outside as her hand settles against the banister. She looks determined. “I’ll figure it out.”

“When you do, pick a better setting.” Before Josie can even look back to retort, the whole room shifts into black and Jade’s awake.

Wendy is long gone from the looks of it. The morning sun is settled high in the sky, meaning it’s later than she thought. Her phone alarm rings incessantly, it must’ve been hours. Jade rolls over to see 4 hours worth of missed alarms, from 6 AM to 10 AM. Jade has missed two classes going on three now. But not woodshop, of course. She shuts the alarm off with a click on the side, huffing a moment later.

Fucking Josie Saltzman. Must take after her father, the little asshole. The tall asshole. She’s just a little prettier is all.

Jade decides to skip 3rd period all together and just wait for 4th period to start. This is one of the newer classes, something Jade wondered Alaric really thought through. It’s a Vampire Physicals Course. Emma says it’s a half practicum/lecture course, with lecture being the first half and practicum being the other half of the year. Jade has entirely missed lecture and she wouldn’t be too disappointed, if it didn’t mean all 8 of her other classmates were constantly throwing new things and lessons at her, expecting her to memorize them and adapt – like she’s been doing this for years like the rest of them. It’s a tad bit annoying. Okay, very annoying. And Jade admits when she gets the turn to whack them during sparring, it’s a little gratifying.

This week’s lesson is in the third chapter in Defensive Combat. But where Jade lacks in technique, she makes up in vampire age. Most of her classmates are new vampires. She has 10 years of speed and strength on her. So, she usually gets hit when they get to padded sparring but she can always hit back harder. It’s a small advantage, but decent enough that the teacher gives her a passing, approving nod. Jade will get the hang of the other stuff soon enough. 

“Halt.” Jade stops tossing punches with Jonathan, a pale brunette vampire with neatly cropped curly hair that she’s sure the girls – and guys – of the Salvatore School dottily approve of her. She looks over to her waiting teacher, who nods for her to come to the center of the sparring mat where the stoic, cold Hope Mikaelson awaits.

Jade doesn’t know Hope personally. She doesn’t know her at all. But she’s heard stories, rumors. In person, Hope is a few inches shorter than she is and she looks far more..docile than Jade imagined. But Jade sees it in the way her cold blue eyes settle on Jade, the way her shoulders roll back, unbothered. Hope Mikaelson is a stone-cold bitch. And something tells Jade she doesn’t like the blonde girl very much.

“You two will be the final match for the day. Five minutes. Nothing brutal, follow the techniques. I will step in if necessary.”

Hope’s scent throws Jade off more than anything. Herbal and earthy, like a seasoned witch, but a rich darker scent underneath it all, a wolf. An alpha at that?

“Get into position.” Professor Oliver commands. Jade obeys and stands ahead of Hope, feet set apart, equidistant, closed fists in front of her face, waiting. Hope slides into position like it’s nothing. Black Salvatore sweats, long sleeve standard shirt. They’re opposites in almost every way in Jade’s white hoodie and cream sweats. Jade likes the color updates they gave to the school. White makes her feel the angel she isn’t.

“Go.”

Hope and Jade slowly circle each other, with the blonde focusing more on not crossing her feet more than anything. Her first mistake. Before she can really understand it, Hope is side stepping her, stepping into her bubble and sending a swift strike to Jade’s stomach then another hit to the face with the opposite hand. Jade flies to the opposite end of the mat and with a loud pop, rolling to a stand just as Hope sends a kick to her head – Jade blocks it and the power of the kick leaves a temporary burning sensation through her arm. Jade steps forward and attempts to throw a punch to Hope’s general face direction. 

Hope pushes her punch to the side, causing Jade to twist up, Hope sends another punch to Jade’s face, then kicks her back. Jade goes down with a heavy thud when Hope’s sending a spinning kick to the face. Jade stays on the ground, her eyes tearfully winding shut as she lets the burning sting of pain slowly reel itself back like vampire healing does. “You’ve got a lot of work to do, Ms. Chatwick.”  
Jade’s eyes open, only watching as the steely, untouchable Hope Mikaelson walks off the mat without even throwing a look back.

MG: Hey yo, where are you?

Currently, Jade is holed up in The Mystic Grill’s furthest corner booth, sipping her third vanilla milkshake, while waiting for her fourth patch of fries, all while nursing a wounded ego. Even though she’ll never have another bruise in her life, she still feels the stinging sensation of Hope’s fist.

JADE: I’m on a bus back home.

MG: WAIT what? No way? Why?

JADE: I’m messing with you. I’m running errands.

MG: I didn’t think you’d be running anywhere after what Hope did to you.

Jade stops sucking on her straw, a frown forming, her eyebrows pulling together – the movement irritating the skin where her hair is pulled into a bun. She needs a haircut.

JADE: How the fuck do you know about that?

MG: Jonathan told me about it after. Apparently, Hope doesn’t usually go that hard.

JADE: I’m honored.

MG: Maybe she thinks you could handle it. It’s like hazing.

JADE: Hazing is a bad thing.

MG: A badass hazing.

JADE: I’m sure the cops will agree.

MG: You telling the feds? 👀

JADE: Noo. Never.

MG: Atta girl.

MG: Listen, I get my ass handed to me all the time in Physicals. I’m with my Physical friends right now, they can tell you all the stories. 

MG: We’re on the rooftop, come slide thru.

“And here’s your fries, sweetheart,” A smooth voice calls out, causing Jade to look up from her phone. Standing before her is the cute waitress. Short, tanned skin, short brown hair. She’s cute, Jade knows she knows she’s cute. The girl is very openly eying Jade and Jade may just consider it.

“Thank you.” Jade says with a chuckle, taking the plate, licking her lips absentmindedly, knowing the girl is watching. Jade might get a little thrill from it all.

“What would I do without you?” Jade purrs, looking over to the girl with low-lidded eyes, prompting the girl to giggle. “I’m Tori. Did you say you go to Salvatore?”

Jade runs her tongue over her teeth as she nods. “Jade’s the name, Tori. You got a number I can save with that name?” Tori does that girlish giggle again, before popping a pen from her pocket and patting around for a piece of paper. Jade’s phone vibrates again, causing her to look down.

MG: No pressure, it’s just your vamp fam. They just wanna meet the new recruit.

JADE: I’m legit older than all of you.

MG: Did you hear something?

The girl slides the number to her with a wink before swaying off. Jade watches her go, pocketing the number.

JADE: I may just –

Jade can smell it before she hears Tori’s yelp followed by a small laugh by her coworkers. It’s a papercut, small insignificant, but it’s enough for Jade’s mouth to water. And just like that, her appetite is gone and any desire to be social leaves with it. Jade throws a bill beside the main full plate and rushes out through the entrance before the girl can notice the cute patron was gone.

Jade lets the cool biting winds of Mystic Falls keep her grounded.


	3. Cincillo & Sigillo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Libraries are a bitch.

It’s not until Jade comes back home, far later than what the bus would’ve gotten her back to Salvatore – when she sees MG’s next text.

MG: Yo, you and Josie are friends, right?

Jade doesn’t really know how to respond to that. Even as she slips into the blood bank room and shoots down three before her molars finally recede, Jade can only stare at the text.

Jade: Yeah…why?

She doesn’t know if that’s true. Truth is, Jade only has their shared experience in the prison world and sick fascination no humanity Jade shared with Josie. A living, breathing pet with pretty, pretty eyes. Ones much prettier and reactive than Kai’s. Her stomach turns at the name: Kai. God does she hate that man. She hates the fact that she slept with him even more. It’s incredible how much she can hate a part of herself that she must live with for literally ever.

MG doesn’t respond, naturally. It’s like 3 AM. Jade sucks the last bag dry like her milkshake hours ago, making a note to delete Tori’s number, as she slips out of the room and into the woods, where she only prays Wendy isn’t home, again. Home. The place doesn’t even have proper water heating, the fuck is she to call it home.

“Holy shit you’re late.” Wendy drones from her sleeping bag, scrolling through her phone, eyes never moving from her screen as Jade closes the door behind her – all previous attempts to stay quiet going out the window. “Didn’t know you were waiting up.”  
Wendy looks up, quietly inspecting the shorter blonde girl. She tilts her head and gestures to Jade to wipe the corner of her mouth. Jade wipes off the remnant blood without looking away. Every interaction felt like a battle with Wendy. “Did you kill some poor Mystic Falls groupie?”

Jade’s eyes roll as she moves through the mill to grab a change of clothes. “No.” She wants to add you think so lowly of her, but Wendy’s assumptions are pretty accurate, considering Jade’s first thoughts when smelling Tori’s blood was wondering if she could trap Tori in the bathroom and kill her back she screams. Jade involuntarily shivers, disgust quickly rising after. It makes her mouth taste overwhelming bitter.

“Unfortunate, I’m sorry.” Wendy hits off the lights, not waiting for Jade to head to bed, as the mill falls into darkness. At least she waited for her.

Third time is the charm. Jade’s standing behind Josie, like she usually is. This time, it’s the Salvatore Library, somewhere she hasn’t been in years. It’s been renovated a bit, with far more books than she remembers. But to be fair, she’d only hidden out here when she was kicked out of her dorms by her old roommate whenever she wanted to fuck her boyfriend.

Josie is sitting at a small round table hidden behind rows and rows of books. Her hair is out this time, pin straight. She’s in a sweater and skirt, a look Jade admits is a well-liked one. Jade wonders if the blush on Josie’s cheeks are painted on or if the girl was that fair.

“I thought you said you don’t watch.”

Jade is directly behind Josie’s chair now and she leans over her shoulder, against Jade’s better judgment to squint down at the book. “How’d you know I was there?”

“I could feel you.” Josie admits, voice low, the slightest bit shaky and Jade finds the smallest victory in that. Jade’s eyes scour the pages. “Looking into this dream thing, are you?” She muses. The book is talking about spell-bound dreams, which past witches used for interrogation purposes when a suspected witch betrayed the coven. 

It’s early from the 15th century, the pages cracked and wearing, but it’s neatly recovered, magically bound together. Jade can feel the warm energy that emits from witches. Josie’s made bumps rise to her skin. Jade takes a breath moment to let Josie’s scent drift into her nostrils. She smells – Jade takes another strong sniff to which Josie huffs and pushes Jade’s leather-bound shoulder away.

“I’m not a meal.”

Jade’s eyes shoot open, she doesn’t know when she shut it. She doesn’t know how close she got. But the blush on Josie’s cheeks are harsher, redder. “I know.” Jade moves to sit beside Josie, blue eyes swiping up to watch Josie look through the book. Josie is extraordinarily pretty, especially up close. Her face is bare of makeup, meaning the fierce red blush she’s sporting now is all her owns. 

Her lips are full, pink, her small nose curves, her almond eyes persistently keep themselves attached to the book despite Jade’s open staring. This staring with Josie isn’t even gay – it’s not entirely gay – it’s out of genuine awe. Somehow the world’s biggest asshole as produced this. It’s a miracle.

“The book only lets me read the pages I’ve read before.” Josie murmurs, a frown growing as she flips through the book again. Jade reaches forward to take the book out of Josie’s hands. She flips through it quickly, absorbing the words as she quickly as she could. “This journal says the spell happens when they both ingest a certain drink and I don’t think we’re drinking the same things, Jos.”

“Are you drunk?” She asks suddenly. Jade’s head shoots up.

“No?”

“No?”

“No.” Jade says firmly. “I don’t drink.”

“Why?”

Jade doesn’t say she’s scared drunk her will kill someone, so instead she shrugs. “I’m underage, aren’t I?” Josie rolls her eyes, but Jade spots the smallest of smiles. “You’re allowed to, you know.”

“Allowed to what?”

“Laugh at me. With me.” Josie looks over to Jade, tongue trapped between two rows of pearly white teeth. “You’re so laid back about – everything.”

“Is that an issue?”

“For every minute you’re trapped in here, it’s another hour of sleep you lose. You’ll be dead tired in the morning.”

“Jos, exhaustion is something else vampirism takes care of.” A beat passes as Josie digests that. “Are you not getting sleep, here with me?”

“The thing is I don’t know why I’m here with you unless someone is casting a spell every night. And why would –“

“Someone want you to talk to me?” Jade’s head is leaning on her open palm now, the single light above their heads making the brown in Josie’s dark hair stand out.

“I’ll ask Wendy, I’ll look into it. I don’t want you losing sleep, that’s pretty shitty for a human at least.”

“A witch.”

“A human witch.” Jade counters, to which Josie finally snickers a bit. “Hope is looking into it too.” Jade puckers her lips with a small nod, the dots connecting. “Is that why she kicked my ass in class today?”

“I think she kicked your ass because you haven’t been in class for the last 10 years.”

“Sorry, should’ve asked Kai to spar, because he totally wouldn’t have cheated.” Josie seems to fold in at the mention of Kai, her fingers going to tug on a loose thread on her skirt. “How are you doing…since the prison world?”  
Jade stays quiet, not sure where to start. This is the first time someone’s asked directly. That doesn’t mean Josie necessarily cares about Jade, like personally. But it’s still nice she asked.

“I’m…”

Jade remembers the vivid scent of Tori and all her blood. The way the world went into hyper-color, the familiar feeling of tightening veins around her eyes.

“…managing.”

Jade’s eyes have fallen to the ground now, where she can only see Josie’s fidgeting fingers in her peripherals. Josie’s watching her now. She can feel it.

“When you have 10 years of dozens and dozens of different feelings, it’s sort of hard to digest it all. I take it day by day.”

“Have you seen Emma yet?” Jade shakes her head at that, raising her head to look back at the waiting gaze of Josie. Easy-going. Less tense. More…Jos. Calm. Warm.

“She could help.”

“She could.” Jade confirms. Josie’s head tilts with an expression Jade is starting to express as disbelief. The blonde sighs a moment later. “Yeah, I’ll check it out. Like I said before, I don’t know where to start.”

“Choose wherever you remember first and go forward from there. Emma will handle the rest.”

They stare in the quiet of the library. Maybe soon, they’d consider each other friends.

“I’ll tell Hope to ease up.” It’s Jade’s turn to bite her tongue now. “Don’t worry about it – I’ll handle it.”

“Yeah?” Josie challenges with a small smile. “She can be a lot.”

“Don’t I know it.” 

“Hey, have you heard of dream jumping?”

Emma lifts her head slowly from her computer to look across the desk at Jade laying across her loveseat, booted knees brazenly hanging across the armrest as dozens of highlighted newspapers laid in the blonde girls lap. Said girl was currently halfway through the nearby medical job listings, when she notices Emma’s lack of a response.

Blue eyes look up to meet openly confused brown ones. “Like in Nightmare on Elm Street?”

“What? No –“

Wait, that was sort of Jade’s situation here. Except she wasn’t trying to kill Josie. Jade wasn’t even sure she could touch Josie in the dream, would she feel that? If that was the case, she could technically do what Freddie did – but Jade didn’t want to kill Josie –

“Maybe…yes.”

Emma turns in her chair to face Jade fully.

“Is this a new monster?” 

“You guys get monsters? Like new monsters?”

Emma immediately waves her off before Jade could assault her with questions. And boy did she have them. What the hell were the school wards for then? Were they still up?

“Why do you ask, Jade?”

Jade’s mouth opens, initially ready to explore that the Headmaster’s cute daughter kept visiting her at night – against her will. And that it wasn’t as hot as it sounded, not when Josie was always half a second away from blasting Jade back into sleep. Also not as hot as it sounded.

“You know, when people are having trouble sleeping, they use concur strange dreams when they are sleeping, thus the importance of having a proper suited environment,” She says pointedly, as if she can see the unpurchased mattress tab sitting in Jade’s phone.

“Well, like, I’m looking for a job so I can buy all the supplies. Arnold doesn’t have all the stuff –“

“Or you could let me ask Alaric,”

“No –“

“He has the funds in the student dormitory account –“

“Emma –“

“And you are a student-“

“Emma!” Jade says sharply, finally bringing the singsong teacher to a stop. Jade feels a twist of guilt settle in her stomach at the smallest trembling of Emma’s fingers. “I’m sorry, but no I’ll handle it…I was talking about these weird dreams I keep having where someone is always in them and we can always talk. Touch –“

She hadn’t confirmed that yet, but it probably wasn’t far off.

“We think it’s an enchanted dream, but don’t know where to start.”

Emma nods slowly, biting his tongue in thought as Jade spoke.

“Is the dream in the same place with the same…person?” Jade nods then shakes her head.

“Same person, different place. First it was her bedroom, then mine, then the place she fell asleep, I think.” 

Emma grabs a notebook from behind herself and begins to scribble on the top page. Same type of pen from Jade’s first dream. Administrative privileges.

“Do you see anyone else in your dreams?”

“No.”

Jade wouldn’t notice them anyway, not if Josie was in the room.

“Is there anyone you could think that’d want to put you in a dream-like state for several hours a night? Both of you?” Jade shakes her head slowly. She didn’t think she had any enemies, any more than usual. Wendy could be a bitch but a continuous dream with Josie Saltzman didn’t seem like her style.

“No.”

“Have you found any good jobs yet?” Emma suddenly asks, pitching up in her seat with an easy going smile so sudden Jade felt a headache begin to shift into place. “What – I?” She looks down at the newspapers. Most medical assistant openings were for someone with the minimum of an undergraduate degree. Jade wasn’t surprised, but she still had hope. “No, but what about-“

Emma slides a paper across the desk. “I’d go to this section of the library, look for this term, I don’t speak any magical Latin terms after some…less than fortunate events. But this could help you. I think what you’re experiencing is a magically induced and locked sleep, where your bodies are both mutually vulnerable. I don’t know why someone would want to do this to you but if this is malicious, I need you to report it.”

Jade takes the paper. Scribbled across the top was: Cincinno & Sigillo. Her calloused fingers travel along the inked imprint, the ink picking up on her fingers. “I will.” Jade promises, without much heart. She wasn’t much for following the system of authority, but Emma seemed to only have good intentions. “Good, now take those newspapers, I’ll get you more in the morning.”

Cincinno & Sigillo was pretty hard to find when the librarian was gone for the night and the library was only open for those with a Council-granted after-hours key. Jade didn’t even remember what the council was until she passed their group photo in the entrance – after breaking into the library, of course.

And there was Josie. Hair perfectly curled, eyes sparkling, back straighter than a pin. Jade wondered what it’d be like for Mona Lisa to frown and crumble. In the nicest way. Jade just wanted to watch her crash and burn. It’d be beautiful.  
Towards the back of the room, in a corner dedicated to personal research findings from the 17th century, Jade began her search, Emma’s paper cool to the touch beneath her fingertips. From her online findings: Cincinno & Sigillo was a phrase: Lock & Seal. But she didn’t know if that was the magical phrase or the general historical phrase. And if the spelling was the same as Emma wrote it. Latin gets wanky the earlier in time you go.

Silently moving through thin, dark halls between each tall row of books, Jade silently flickers from title to title. Most of these were journals focused on the medical abilities of plants and crops with the use of magical herbs. Some of them were just journals, and others were weird titles. Some kinky. Alaric must not pay the librarian enough to filter them. The thought makes Jade’s lip turn up – until she hears the patter of heels in the distance. Far enough that they couldn’t see or hear Jade, but it was only a matter of time till they were around the corner.

“I swear to god, if this isn’t the book, I’m fucking strangling you. I missed my shows for this –“The feminine, haughty voice calls out, before someone hums a response. Digital. Notably female too, but Jade couldn’t get a read. Either way, she knew it was a phone call. Jade slinks further into the rows and moves behind one of it’s tall spines, as she hears the girl approach. If she weren’t a vampire, she’d be blind, she’s sure, but God obviously had different plans for her. She turns to look down the row to see the girl.

Lizzie Saltzman clear as day. Where Josie quietly gravitated the world around her, Lizzie was loud and concentrated. A direct dose of Saltzman. More like Caroline than anything. Jade moves back behind the spine as she passes. “It took me forever to dig out of this section, you owe me dinner,”

In Lizzie’s passing hand is a thick brown book with golden lettering: Cincillo is all Jade can see in passing before Lizzie is out of her view. Fucking shit.  
Fucking shit!

Jade almost takes after her, her weightless feet promising a quick descent, if she hadn’t smelled fresh cologne enter the air, as a dark haired man steps into Lizzie’s past, only barely leaving Jade time to slip back into another set of rows. Jade slides and narrowly avoids crashing in the rows, as she trips and lands on the floor.

Jade holds her breath as she waits any sort of reaction from them. Instead she hears little…whimpers. Then a male moan. Oh no. Lizzie’s back must’ve hit the tall wooden spine behind her, causing the books to rattle. One hits Jade’s head despite her efforts to dodge the avalanche. Fucking hormonal kids. “Sebastian, not now, I’ve gotta go,” She murmurs breathlessly, before she giggles at something he does.

Jade’s eyes roll so hard, she doesn’t see for a solid few second, but then she gets an idea. Peeking her head out of the row, she sees the Cincillo book – Cincillo & Sigillo in all its glory – laying on the ground beside her feet. But there was no way Jade could get to it without notifying them both. And that just seemed like a bad proposition. 

So, Jade does something very old-school-Jade and for a moment, it feels perfectly right. Like she wasn’t gone for 10 years or something. She reels her booted foot back and slams the bookcase down. It dominoes backwards, like she expects and the brunette guy spots it and speeds Lizzie away from both the book and the avalanche. Jade doesn’t wait for the blonde-haired witch to react as she runs up, grabs the book and disappears into the night.

I think MG would call it: Batman Badass.


	4. The Crash of a Drum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on Twitter @theadriatik

“This is gonna cost you,” Wendy hums, sprawled across the bed Jade just installed in the newly cleaned, repainted mill. Queen-size, memory foam, the whole works. And she’s just starfished on it, covered in muck from PE. Jade could smack her.

Said girl instead throws out the last of boxes and leftover wood into the pile outside to deal with another day, before wiping her fingers on her sweats and using the ends of her shirt to wipe the muck of sweat off her forehead.

“And you could afford it too if you use this sweaty worker look more often.”

“Fuck off.” Jade spews so easily, exhaustion wearing on her like another layer, as she heads off the spare beanbags MG brought her the other day and collapsing into the pile with a heavy sigh. Heavy enough to make her forget she’s supposed to be nice to Wendy.

“What the ever-living fuck do you have to do instead of translating the damn book?” She remarks, hand patting the area around the bean bags trying to find her bookbag with the three extra blood bags from lunch. 

MG had given them up after Jade helped him with a notoriously difficult vampire chemistry course. Ironically, Jade had once studied vampire physiology almost as much as human physiology.

“Literally anything else, fuckwit,” Jade’s eyes roll just as she finds the plastic end of the blood bag nearby and yanks from her bag and onto her lap. Wendy waits patiently on the bed, flipping through the book. It’s only when Jade’s halfway through her blood bag that she waves Wendy on, a silent agreement.

“I want a pound of wolfsbane, a pound of vervain, and two pounds of blue lapis,” In a half a second, Jade had managed to inhale the bag down the wrong pipe and abruptly spit it out in a spit take. Thank god she hadn’t laid down the new carpet. She coughed and hacked as Wendy tossed the book aside and sat up on the bed.

“You should get covers, 12 count –“

“How the fuck am I supposed to find that? I can barely get in and out of class with Alaric reminding me that tuition is due.” The little bearded shit. Wendy shrugs. “Don’t know, don’t care, figure it out,”

Wendy tosses the book at Jade. She would’ve caught it too if her lap wasn’t covered in blood and she had the tentative idea of approaching Josie at one of those stallions practice with the book. And maybe dinner. If she was brave enough. 

So instead she ducks and lands on the floor, blood bag promptly popping beneath her, Wendy’s laugh emitting through the rickety old building.

“Bitch,” Jade mutters, closing her eyes as she lays her rumbling head against the wood plank floor. Not like she hasn’t been sleeping there for days on end.

There hasn’t been a dream in days and Jade doesn’t know if she misses it or not. It’s obviously much easier talking to the girl in her dreams then approaching her in the halls where she inevitably has Lizzie or Hope flanking her. Hope, who glares ice cold daggers anytime Jade as much as breaths in her direction. 

In a cocky, prideful way, she likes to think it’s because Hope knows Jade is a threat to whatever hold she has on Josie. But that implies Josie thinks about Jade as much as Jade thinks about her and that feels hard to believe.  
Josie is a source of mystery for Jade. She’s pretty in the way all the girls Jade has ever liked are pretty. Any girl or guy in Salvatore knows that. 

Jade knew Josie was her type from the moment they met in the prison world, but now things feel different. Jade isn’t an idiot, she isn’t in love, she’s just in something.

She doesn’t miss the way Josie looks at Landon – hell sometimes Rafael too. Jade watches her too long to act like Josie doesn’t look at other people with a longing that Jade harbors at the latest hours of the night. But Jade’s feelings are what she’s beginning to recognize as the usual “vampire over-emotionalization”.

Emma explained it as where normal humans feel happy, vampires feel ecstatic. Where normal people are sad, vampires are in despair. And where normal people have crushes, vampires are-  
“Yo, Jade!” MG calls out from across the field followed by a broader, darker guy, a solid inch taller than MG and enough meat on his arms to rebuild MG and Jade from the ground up if he wanted.

Jade turns to face them, pushing off the tree. “Jade, this is Kaleb. Kaleb, this is Jade.” They shake hands, cordial and quick. “So you’re the guy who keeps kicking MG’s ass in poker.” Jade quickly grins, shark teeth and all. “Of course, MG is awful at it.”  
They turn to enter the woods, with Kaleb walking at her side and MG trailing after. “Thank you! I swear I’ve been trying to teach him the tricks, but he never gets it.”  
“Go Fish is a much superior game.” MG pipes in from behind, shoes squeaking.

It’s about an hour later, after a bit of enhanced running that they finally reach far enough into the woods to find natural wolfsbane. The area is untouched by civilization, with little wood animals scurrying about.   
Well, running around in a five-foot radius around the three of them. She doesn’t blame them, there’s not a living soul amongst the three of them anyway.

Wolfsbane is easy to gather. They stuff their little satchels with as much as they can find, walking half a mile down to the riverside to pick up more before eventually the satchels are full and they store it away in their bags.  
“So, Jade, I usually mind my business but are you planning a werewolf revolution? Because they took over the break room and I’d really love to get my #1 pool player position back.”   
Jade looks over her shoulder, in mild surprise. “They took the break room?”

“Have you been in it?” He challenges. She shakes her head. “There’s my point. Raf always guards it, while Jed and the others fuck around for hours. They hog the vending machines. I haven’t had a pop tart in weeks.”  
“I’m actually doing a favor for a witch but we should actually take back the break room. If I remember right, that’s the only place they let you nap outside of class.” Kaleb nods to confirm.

“That’s one of the few prehistoric rules they’ve maintained from your time.” Jade sucks her teeth, displeased. “Dipshits.” She mutters.

“Are you getting these for Josie?” Jade stops at MG’s words, causing Kaleb to stop, causing MG to stop. Full circle. 

Jade turns back to him. “No?”

“No? I thought you were friends.”

“I think we are but, no why would –“ Jade squints, leaning in the now sweaty, nervous MG. “What gives?”

“I don’t –“

“MG.” Jade starts taking a step closer to him, laying down a long curly fly away back to the nap of his head. “Start talking.”

“Josie said she was having weird dreams.”

“Kinky.” Kaleb pipes in. “And you were in them…sometimes,” MG adds.

“Sometimes?” Jade juts in, eyes opening in alarm, which only seems to further MG’s confusion but he nods quickly. “Sometimes, and uh, maybe this is to help with the spell or something and.” Jade stops him by tapping his shoulder with the swift shake of her head. “No.”

“No?”

“No, the dream thing is true, but everything else, no. I’m getting it to translate this old book.” A book that was related to this whole situation. Jade technically could explain that, but the stinging acknowledge that Josie was just dream hopping with anyone made her not want to. So, she didn’t. They start walking again.

“Is the witch hot?”

She thinks of Wendy’s insatiable penchant for fire.

“The hottest.” She drawls.

“Nice.”

“So, what’s the book say?”

Kaleb and Jade sit at the vampire's table with a game of dominoes between them while MG rummages through the leftovers of a large veggie pizza on the other side, besides Wendy.   
Kaleb is stupidly good at dominoes even though Jade spent half her life playing it at school. She likes Kaleb, she just hates losing.

Wendy hums, only barely acknowledging Kaleb’s question as she slowly flips through the book with one hand, the other making occasional aerial scripts, the magical blue mist slipping from her fingers. 

Wendy has nice fingers, not in a gay way, just in a Jade is a queer girl with eyes way. MG notices too if it’s any way he doesn’t take his eyes off the brunette whose hair is perfectly swept back into a bun with a Salvatore sweater hanging off one bare shoulder.  
MG must have a type. Mean girls who steal lunch money for fun. Kaleb moves one of his green pieces to hers, essentially cutting her off. The fucker.

“A lot of things.” She looks out of the corner of her eye to the three bags of filled vervain, wolfsbane, and blue lapis, and the three drained, dirty stained vampires, before puckering her lips with a nod, pushing the book across the desk to Jade.   
Jade catches it before it hit the dominoes and drops it on her lap. It’s in English now. Jade looks up to see a waiting Wendy, sitting with a smirk. “I didn’t know you were having a repeat nightly visitor,” She purrs with leering eyes to which Jade ignores, looking away.

“Perv,” She starts flipping through the book as she stands. “You win, asshole,” She tells Kaleb without looking to which she can hear him fist-pumping to. “You owe me –“ he starts, but she doesn’t let him finish.

“Blood, yeah, I know, blah, blah, blah.”

She shuts the book in her hand and looks to the others. “I’m gonna go clean up and get a grip on this. Kaleb, you’ll have your blood at some point, MG, I owe you one. And Wendy…”

She waits smugly, looking forward to whatever Jade had to say in her favor.

“Fuck off,” Jade’s down the hall when she hears Wendy cackle and MG timidly asks her out. She says yes if she can get Rafael to take her out too, at some point. That bitch.

The journal revolves around the work of a man named Klover Enders. There’s not much about his personal life, but as far as Jade can tell, the man himself is not a witch but he was documenting the work of several. Cincillo & Sigillo is an entrapment spell that starts in the dreamland – it doesn’t ever talk about where it goes but it starts there. 

A spell must be cast on both parties. The spell works through verbal casting but is strongest by the mutual consumption of a potion and a chant. A potion he doesn’t ever get around to jotting down since he’s so caught up in the lore of it all.  
But the premise is all the same, whatever Josie and she were going through, it was purposeful, and it was powerful. It’s usually used once, as it’d take repeat spell-casting to do night after night. 

If Josie – and Jade, of course – wanted it to stop, they needed to find the caster. They couldn’t be too far or else the spell would collapse within itself. It’s a start. A strong one.

Jade doesn’t try to fight the wave of exhaustion that hits her when she finishes the last chapter in the corner of the library, several empty sodas under her chair as she pulls her hoodie on and nestles against the wall, heavy eyes slipping closed. Josie’s waiting for her, she can feel it.

Immediately, she’s transported to the docks. Cold, bone-achingly cold, with white fog sliding against the wood and down into the woods behind her.

At the end is Josie, feet swinging, arms wrapped around herself. She won’t look back even when Jade approaches from behind.

“Why here?” 

She’s cold but it doesn’t bother her like it must bother Josie. Josie doesn’t answer. The brunette looks away, her palm sliding up to grab her sleeve and tug it against her nose, poorly hiding a sniffle.   
Jade feels whatever little reservations she had around Josie melt as she sits beside the girl, a respectable distance, but on the small dock, she can still feel Josie’s warmth.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She offers, voice low, warmer than anything else on the dock, eyes bluer than the water below, watching Josie’s silhouette. Josie shakes her head to herself, looking back ahead, gaze dropping, a pink tongue running across her bottom lip before biting it. 

In other moments, Jade would be distracted, but in this context, it makes Josie look so small. Young. Her hair is down, messy from the wind.

“A long time ago, I…” She takes a deep breath and Jade waits. “I liked someone. A lot. They were all I thought about.”

Jade nods once. “But I never told them, I never told anyone. I was scared someone I knew, who fared far better with crushes would get to them first and I’d have to see them be together, and it’d just,” She gestures wildly, biting her tongue. 

“Destroy me, so I just tucked it away.”

Josie looks out for a solid moment, with no words, the thoughts piecing themselves together into tentative sentences. Jade could practically watch them attach themselves. Watching Josie, up close, felt like a privilege.   
Being close to Josie, even in a fake dream world, made Jade’s chest feel brittle, always a moment away from caving in if Josie just looked at her a certain way. The way she does with everything, so passionately.

Jade could feel her cold, dead heart restarting in her chest when Josie looked at her when she breathed close enough to the blonde. Jade’s mind reels back in when Josie does look at her. Jade’s chest crumbles into dust and slips into the air. She’s breathless.

“How do you get over someone you never had?” 

She can only stare back at Josie. Neither of them breathing. Jade, leaning back on her palms, motionless. Josie, hands in her lap, but ever so slightly tilted towards the other girl. 

This was the least amount of distance between them. Jade wasn’t closing it, but it still felt so electric, she could imagine the lake around them burning up and surrounding them in misty clouds.

“You don’t, really.”  
Josie inhales and she doesn’t breathe, even after Jade knows her lungs must start to burn. Maybe she can’t feel it in this world.

Jade licks her own lips, looking away with a sharp exhale, feeling the chips of the ruin of her chest shake with it. 

“When I was…human, and in high school, I was sorta a piece of shit. Easier to stay away from.” She starts, she can feel Josie’s eyes on her. 

“I met this girl, the grade above me. And man, she was fucking gorgeous. And she was everything to me.” Jade’s eyes shut before she can control it. And it’s then she learns, you can have a dream within a dream.

She can see Dahlia’s red hair, curled, always, thrown over her shoulder. Forever sparkling hazel eyes. The dimple on her cheek. She would never blink when she looked at Jade. It made the human-her squirm and squirm. Dahlia would only laugh.

“I loved her, Josie. More than anything. And she knew that. She chose me, for some reason. When her coven came to town – a rare thing with vampires – she fought to stay because she wanted to see my story through…I think she wanted to stick around long enough to drive me insane and offer me forever when I was nothing more than her puppet.”

Jade feels the rough school-bus leather seats beneath her fingers instead of the dock wood. She can smell the burning rubber and feel the jagged tear in the metal wall beneath her spine. Whenever she dreams of her life before the turn, it was always the few moments beneath Dahlia shoved the blood down her throat.

“We were never dating, but we were something. I thought so. She tried to convince me to run away, I could be hers, no more foster homes, no more detentions, no more bills. Just her, just me. I refused. I had just gotten into a summer program, medical. My principal wrote it. And I didn’t want to miss it, for once, I didn’t want to die. She couldn’t stand it. So when the bus was trying to stop with the train coming up, she just –“

Her heeled boot stabbed through the floor, wide black eyes, angry. Always angry inside. She stabbed right through the brake system, through the tires.

Half the bus died on impact, a quarter died in the hospital, and the last quarter are forever scarred in some way. Jade doesn’t know which group she belongs to.

“She crashed the bus and turned me when she found I had survived. And then, the police were here. And she was gone. And…” She’s looking back on the water now, throat thick. 

“And even when I had to go back home, hide from my foster Mom so she couldn’t see that I was scratch-free, I still loved her. And wanted her back, even when I hated her for doing this to me when she promised she wouldn’t. Not without asking.”  
Jade looks back to Josie, who’s still just looking at her and the thought makes Jade’s knees go weak. God, she’s easy. 

“You don’t ever get over someone, not completely, but you can find new reasons to be happy. Be more than what they made you.” She ends, surprised at the finality in her voice.   
Dahlia always made her shake, inside and out. 

Jade meets Josie’s eyes again. Josie nods a couple times, before a shaky smile appears. “Thank you, Jade.”

The blonde feels a shy blush shoot through her expression before she dons her own smile, creases in the corner of her eye and all.

Josie’s hand covers her a second later.

Jade doesn’t just feel Josie’s touch, smooth, warm, putting her together and tearing her apart simultaneously. 

She feels more.


	5. Dodgers?

Jade can still feel the burn of Josie’s palm atop her knuckles as she lounges on the top of the Salvatore bleachers, as Lizzie hustles the team a hundred feet or so below.

It’s a warm Saturday morning, with the Virginian sun beating down on the blonde’s unlucky recruits, as they finish the last lap before returning to the final scrimmage of the day.

Finishing the line off is a sweaty, obnoxiously pretty Josie Saltzman in a cropped hoodie, cuffed sweatpants, and a bandana.

What a sight for sore eyes.

Jade knows Josie must feel how hard Jade is staring, even if she’s hiding behind an old baseball cap and shades she stole from Wendy. Which – if her memory serves right – Wendy stole from her, to begin with.

Jade twirls the black cloth string against her collarbone, sneakers propped in front of her, as her back nestles against the rusted bars behind her, the journal on her left. The blonde wonders if she could find another excuse to make her way up here even if this whole dream shit works out.

Jade doesn’t think her thing for brunettes extends strictly to athletes – she wasn’t the biggest one herself – but it’s really not a bad look for Jos.

Said sweaty girl looks back to Jade at the last defeating whistle, calling the end of practice. Most of the people slip away to the waiting water cooler – while Josie moves towards the bleachers.  
Jade’s at the bottom in half a second with the journal, Josie smiles, albeit nervously. “Hey, Jade,”

Jade grins, hearing the nervous flutter of her heart. But on second thought, that was probably her genuine human exhaustion. Idiot. “Jos,” She greets, before moving to hold the book out to her, and stopping halfway. 

“You have been having weird dreams, right?”

Josie rolls her eyes with a poorly hidden grin as she crosses the distance and takes the book. Jade leans against the short fence between them, as Josie scans through it, still taking short breathes every few seconds.

Jade hopes the shades are dark enough that Jos can spot the way Jade’s eyes watch every single sweat droplet slide down the column of her neck.

She can’t tell if she likes Josie’s neck in a gay way or a vampire way. Her stomach grumbles in response. Jade turns to lean on her side, kicking up onto the heel of her sneaker. “So, I can let you read it, or I can give you the run down,”

Josie looks up at that. “Why didn’t you say that earlier?”

Jade shrugs with a small grin. “Wanted to give you the option,” Josie rolls her eyes again, nodding for Jade to pull as she pulls off her bandana and grabs her water bottle from the ground below.

“It’s called Cincillo & Sigillo, it’s usually cast on the two dreamers individually and lasts for a night or so. Pretty powerful stuff is not something that can be comfortably repeated every night.” Josie nods, as Jade speaks, practically inhaling the water before using the collar of her hoodie to wipe her mouth.

“Is it only done through spell-casting?” Jade shakes her head, mentally slapping herself for not continuing. Watching Josie and talking was a difficult task. 

“Potion consumption does the trick too, for a stronger dream, but he doesn’t mention what the potion would continue nor how to break it. So whoever is doing it, is using a lot of power to do this repeatedly, every night. Any idea who’d want us both down for the count?”

Josie sighs, shaking her head. “I’d think Kai, but my Dad said he won’t be a problem anymore,” Jade frowns at that. Not because she has any loyalty to Kai – gross – but more so, because Alaric so clearly killed him and can’t even admit it to his daughters.   
But as much as Jade’s eyes are locked onto Josie, hers are locked onto the blonde. She catches the frown before Jade can wipe it.

“What?” 

Jade shrugs. “Nothing, just, your Dad is a hypocrite –“

“Josie! Let’s hit the showers, I’m sweating like a pig here!” Lizzie calls from across the field, waving to the girl as she turns off and heads back towards the school. 

Josie looks over then back to Jade, who only waits with an arched eyebrow. “Anyway, I could, like, stay up tonight and see if anyone casts anything on you?”

“My Dad’s not a – you wanna watch me while I sleep?” She challenges with a small chuckle, pink flaring her cheeks, loose hairs moving wildly in the wind. The comment draws a smug laugh from Jade.

“Don’t get so shy on me, Jos, I don’t have to be in the same room.”

“So, like Twilight-style?” Jade shrugs once with a nod. “That works, I can be closer to.” She shoots her a wide smile, all-white sparkling shark teeth and all. Jade still thanks her one dentist foster father who insisted she keeps her teeth in perfect condition – no soda, no coffee, no anything, at least as a human.

“But, no, really, I’ll just be outside. Close enough that if anyone tries to enter your room or your window and cast something, I can grab them. We’ll go from there.” She assures the girl, leaning onto her elbows to push her shades up the bridge of her nose. Josie nods slowly, eyes trained onto the black rims replacing Jade’s blue orbs.

“Dodgers?”

Huh? Jade only half remembers the black cap nestled on her hair. Jade reaches up and brushes the top off sheepishly. “Oh yeah, I uh-“ Josie waits, smugly. “Yes, Josie, Dodgers. I’m a fake fan,”

She giggles and looks down and Jade considers wearing more stupid hats so Josie can bully her again. “No, my Dad has a ton at home, and I’ve never seen a black one, he only lets us get the team appropriate ones.”  
“I get all my caps in black before anything else,” Jade counters with a small chuckle. “What’s the normal color?”

“It’s like a marble blue, so like duller than your eyes, but,” Josie than immediately inflates, turning a full red, leaning off the rail, as she covers her mouth embarrassed.   
Jade wants to hug her, she’s adorable. Jade’s face is as red as hers, with a wide grin. “Didn’t know you color-coded my eyes, Jos?”

Josie holds the book to her chest like a shield. “Swing by my room before you camp out and we can do the thing –“

“I need your number first,” Jade suddenly interjects, hopping over the fence in one fell swoop, landing in front of the girl. Josie is only a hair or two taller than Jade, it’s a comforting thought. Josie nods quickly, taking Jade’s phone from her pocket, speedily typing it in before shooting off.

Jade could’ve gotten Josie’s number from MG, but now she knows Josie intimately knows the color of Jade’s eyes.

Fucking win.

When MG and Kaleb turn up later, cleaned up from Stallions practice, they bring a friend. A witch, Jade only barely recognizes, Alyssa. She has – or had – a lot of beef with the twins and Alaric. Not that Jade blames her. She sent them to the prison world, then decided she didn’t feel like playing the villain to their weird over-dramatic world.

At least that’s the excerpt Jade gets with Alyssa walking alongside her on the way to the Grill, the boys stumbling a bit behind them, settling a bet over 8-ball.

“How’d you pull that off anyway? We spent literally years looking for a way out from the inside?” Alyssa shrugs once like she knows how but doesn’t feel like explaining. “Doesn’t matter, won’t be doing that again.”

“So, like you’re done fighting them?” She rolls her eyes with a heavy sigh. “God yes, fighting them is like a pit hole that sucks up the rest of my youthful, fantastical life. I’ve got better things to do.”

She looks over to Jade, her heeled boots giving her a solid two inches over Jade, who’s pulled her hood on to avoid as much sun exposure as possible. “Why are you talking to me?” Jade asks suddenly. Alyssa smirks. “I need your help.”  
Jade scoffs. “Course.”

“Wendy is probably the most powerful natural witch on campus.”

“Natural?”

Alyssa tosses her curled black hair over her shoulder. “There are naturals and there are siphoners, etc,” Jade’s eyes roll. “Yeah, of course,” She mutters.

“Anyway, before Alaric sent her off, she was easy on her way to becoming the witch representative. And now that she’s back, I want to overthrow the current. 

“And you need Wendy to do that?”

“Wendy is the most experienced witch on campus and maybe, she’d actually give a damn about us, instead of little Ms. Saltzman, who only cares when she remembers,”

Jade’s footfalls slow, as they approach the last street sign before the Grill, giving her a chance to look at Alyssa for once. “And what do you need me for, Alyssa?”

“You’re the only one who can reach her. Get me a date with her-“

Jade laughs before she can stop it. Alyssa’s face darkens considerably and Jade has to hold a hand out to stop any revenge coming from Alyssa’s behalf, as she kneels over to laugh. “This whole shit is for a date, you fucking coward?”

Alyssa looks around wildly for a moment, blush burning face against her olive complexion before she pulls Jade straight. “Stop making a scene, you know what I mean,”

“Your crush is showing, Alyssa,”

Alyssa smacks her arm. “I just need to talk to her one on one and make her give a shit about the school, seriously, I’ll-“ The girl sighs so heavily and sharply, Jade wonders if it pains her to ask for help. “I’ll owe you.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Jade counters, after a long moment of reflection. She goes over the crosswalk a moment later. “You don’t have to grant favors to ask for help, you know.”

An uneventful lunch later, with MG and Alyssa coddled up on one side and Jade and Kaleb flirting their way into free fries on the other, Jade is heading out from the mill, freshly showered with a large fresh coffee and a bag full of treats and a couple of blood bags as she treks over to the dorms – Josie’s text on the top of her notifications. 

The room is on the other side of the forest, on the edge of the witch dormitory. Jade’s half worried about stumbling into a ward or a trap, but it’s concerningly bare. Whatever protections there are for the school, it’s beyond Jade now. 

Scaling the large oak tree leading to an open window on the corner of the final dormitory, Jade smells her before she hears her. She must’ve just showered, she smells like Josie normally does – sweet but with a dash of lilac and honey. She can smell the metal ting of the showerhead too. It makes Jade dizzy.

God, she’s so fucking gay.

Tiptoeing to the end of the thick branch, Jade plops down. Inside, Josie is moving through the room – thankfully dressed, Jade didn’t know how she was gonna deal with that situation if she ran into it.

Josie’s anxiously flinting throughout the room, patting down the bed and the dresser, then the posters on the wall, hand on her necklace before Jade has the heard to rap her knuckles on the window – Jos was like a hummingbird, a hair away from a heart attack at all moments.

Said girl spins around to face Jade. “It’s open.”

“And I’m a gentleman, can I come in?” She asks, holding a bag of chips from her bag as a piece offering, eyebrow arched. Josie nods. Jade easily slips through the window and lands on her booted feet without a sound.   
She looks throughout the room. “It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.” Josie murmurs, from behind her. “I know, but it’s nice to see in person,”

Jade looks back to the waiting Josie, who looks a shade greener than she remembers. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, just…c’mere,” Josie pats the spot beside her. Jade crosses the room and slowly sits down on the bed, not sure where to put her hands, so she sticks them in her pockets, the cool leather keeping her from wondering how soft Josie’s sheets were. If she’d smell Josie’s lilac perfume on her hands days after.

“The journal is pretty much what you said, but almost any spell can be cast if you connect it to a continuous magic source. So you’d only have to cast it.” Josie pulls out a book and sets it between them. It’s Latin and more drawings than words, but legible nevertheless. 

“I was thinking if it’s not a potion and if you don’t find someone tonight, it could be happening through a physical cast.”

“Like someone did the spell, connected it to a heavy magic source and let it be?”

Josie nods, happy that Jade gets it. “Yeah, theoretically.”

“Okay, so if this is the case, it’d mean that someone did the spell and cast it onto a magical object and as long as that object is alive and well, any object, then it’ll keep happening.” 

“And for this thing to work for both of us, do we both need an object, or?” Josie’s at a momentary loss for words.

“I’m really not sure…”

Jade is flabbergasted. In truth, she hadn’t considered the full extent as to why this was happening. Why her, why Josie? What are they missing?

“How much magic would you need for all of this?”

“Less than the magic needed to create a prison world, but more than any grand spell you can find in the approved books here.”

“Jos, serious question,” Josie’s solid brown eyes find hers, eyebrows furrowed together. It’s the first time Jade notices how close they are. Josie radiates warmth in her tank top and shorts. Her knee is brushing Jade’s covered one. She should never wear jeans again.

“Why us? Why me?” Josie’s mouth opens. 

“I-I don’t know. This could be a really really stupid prank, or someone thinks you can distract me enough for the night and I-“

“That I could –“

“I don’t know, Jade, I’m sorry, for all of this,” She finishes, voice wavering as her gaze falls away. It doesn’t take a second for Jade’s heart to fold in and her hand to move to catch Josie’s face. 

It’s a move Jade should’ve reconsidered considering Josie’s all but frozen. “It’s okay, I,” Jade pulls away a moment later, embarrassed enough to consider going home – but she won’t.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this, I won’t leave you behind in this mess, promise,” Josie’s eyes shimmer, but there’s a small smile. “I’m sorry you’re losing sleep.”

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” Jade sends Josie a small smile, wringing her hands in her lap before standing. “I’m gonna start your patrol, get some rest if you need me, I’ll be outside.”

Josie nods, watching Jade as she travels back to the windowsill, pausing as she’s halfway through. She looks back. “Does Lizzie know?” Josie shakes her head. “Good.” Jade slips out the window and settles onto the branch.  
Within minutes, the lights are off and Josie’s dozing off. Jade lets herself breathe.

Until Hope Mikaelson strolls in.


	6. Bleeding Out

Hope fucking Mikaelson. No way.

Several ideas ran through Jade’s head at once.

1\. Hope was casting the spell for some apparent reason.

In hindsight, the hybrid was powerful enough to do it. And she was close enough to Josie that she could be casting the spell every night – like now – or to tie the spell to an object than give it to Josie. But why?

2\. Hope was just coming to see Josie.

Which made sense, even if Jade felt like tossing her bag at the girl below hard enough to knock her out. They were friends. Close, possessive friends who pulled at each other’s sleeves and collars to keep each other close.

Friends who had eyes for each other and each other only. Jade watched how Josie looked at a lot of people, but she didn’t watch the way she looked at Hope. Not if she could help it. That was too much.

Then there was another, more radical option.

3\. Hope was coming to see Lizzie.

And Josie didn’t know, if the dark lit room indicated anything. And meeting with Lizzie under her windowsill where the darkness hid roaming hands and heated, wet demands. It was an option, one where Jade’s stomach rotted at the thought of telling Josie that Lizzie and Hope were hooking up.

Below her, Hope was nearing Josie’s window but stopped underneath the trees surrounding the dorms. She’s only a few feet from Jade’s tree. Meaning if she hasn’t spotted the girl yet, she should any moment –

“You can go home, Jade.” She says, curtly, like clockwork.

That left the last option.

4\. She was here to check on Josie. To watch her window for the night. Not Jade.

Swinging her hips off the branch, Jade lands in front of Hope, blonde tendrils landing on her shoulders softly, blue eyes flat, distant, shoulders pushed back. “What is it you don’t want Josie and I to see?”

“What?” Hope takes a half step back, before rearing forward, with flashing eyes. “You think I’m doing this to her?”

Jade tosses a pointed thumb behind her back to Josie’s waiting window.

“My one and only description is anyone who visits her, while she’s sleeping with the intention of not getting caught and,” Jade’s pointer finger shoots back to Hope. “You’re the only one I see- “

In half a second, Jade is pinned a tree with an invisible force gripping her throat tighter than humanely possible. But Hope hadn’t moved.

Jade’s hands fly to her throat as the ragged, burning sensation of suffocation invades her senses. Her eyes shut as she struggles and flails against the tree.

In front of her, Hope moves forward, her left hand ahead of her, as she stops inches in front of Jade. “I can’t stand you.” She states, simply, words cold and final.

She’s unblinking and for once, Jade realizes, her mask is down and this is really the uninhibited, cruel and untamed Hope Mikaelson below.

Daughter of the Worst Man Who Walked the Earth.

“I don’t know why Alaric let you back in, let you think you deserve good things. You don’t. You never will.” Jade’s hand begins to slam down on the force as her throat slowly begins to crack and fold into itself.

“You will never have the right to speak to me, at me, with me. This is your final warning, or I’ll kill you. No one will mourn you, not even Josie, I will make sure of that.” She finishes, mouth beside Jade’s ear before she flicks her hand and snaps Jade’s neck.

The last thing she sees is Hope approaching Josie’s window.

She jolts back to life at dawn, as the tawny orange sun breaks through the early morning sky.

Normally, when she wakes up at dawn, she has the pleasure of watching the sun slowly move across the mill’s old plank floors and creep along her pale freckled skin, sliding across her knuckles, winking at her daylight ring before warming the rest of her undead, immortal body. Giving her a reason to see another day, just one more.

This morning, she’s greeted by the roasting of her knuckles, as the sun slips through the canopy of trees and chases her through the trees. Her daylight ring is gone.

Hope Mikaelson is a bitch, but she could not be a big enough bitch as to want Jade to die. Even Hope could be thrown out by Alaric. But would he really do that? No. He wouldn’t.

Jade feels the dark, rippling forces of rage slip through her bones and pound against her tingling, burning skin, as she fights the image of Alaric kicking Jade’s ashes into the lake, Hope not far behind. Emotionless. Untouchable.

Jade hits the wall beside the dormitory entrance, her forehead colliding directly into the cement with a bang. Jade falls back on her ass, giving her face direct access to the morning sun above.

She blinks back bloody tears as she scrambles onto her knees, grabs the doorknob and yanks it open with a prayer the witches don’t live like Hogwarts witches and enchant their entrances.

They don’t.

The door swings open and Jade’s tele-running into the nearest dark corner of the hallway with a loud gasp, her palms connecting with the wall to stop another collision.

She doesn’t look back to see if she left blood, as she ascends into the nearby stairwell and tele-runs to the floor she can smell Josie’s scent on and follows it until she’s in front of a large wooden door with two feminine voices.

She lays her head against the wall beside the wall, bringing her raw knuckles against the door, as she feels herself tremble and shake, sliding to the floor, eyes shutting again.

Jade doesn’t know how far in the forest she must’ve been. A lot further than a few feet in front of Josie’s window, because she’s still burning, and she can’t see and smell and hear –

She can only feel Josie’s hand slip under her armpits and move her into the room as cooler, different hands slip under her ankles. Then, darkness again.

She’s still burning.

She dreams of Marcia’s home. On the corner of Federal. Baby blue with fresh paint and leather. Marcia could’ve been Jade’s favorite foster mother. She wasn’t home very often. 

She adopted Jade at the same time she lost her adopted sister in some deadly night encounter. She adopts Jade, a knee-jerk reaction to her own grief, then disappears into her work. Private-sector intelligence.

Something that pays a lot but demands even more.

Jade liked her though. She was simple, understandably. An easy transaction. She left the same amount of money on the table every week and left Jade her favorite cereal whenever she went grocery shopping.

There was no Marcia. There was Inez.

Inez, who doesn’t fit the timeline. She’d be younger, probably in Mystic Falls, like she told Jade. She grew up there. And yet, 16-year-old Inez was in Jade’s bed. Alive, warm, she was cupping Jade’s face, no traces of shock, of hate. Like Jade never mutilated her.

Then, when Jade blinks, it’s just Inez’s hand on her. A blood stump. The bed is covered in shreds of flesh and blood, and Inez’s blood-curling screams are ringing right through Jade and into the deepest pits of hell.

“Jade!”

Jade jolts awake for the second time today, she just isn’t burning this time. This time, she’s laying on Josie’s bed, her skin blissfully cool to the touch. She exhales, relief flooding her senses coupled with the sweet lilac scent Jade’s quickly beginning to associate with Josie.

Josie, who’s sitting at the end of the bed, wide, concerned eyes. “You were thrashing around and,” Jade pulls herself up onto her elbows, causing Josie to move forward with a wince. “Be careful- “

“I insta-heal Jos,” She chuckles reassuringly but Josie quickly shakes her head, causing Jade to stop. “For whatever reason, you…did not this time. It took a while. I almost took you down to the nursery, but,”

She waves around to Jade’s healed body; Jade looks down and immediately grimaces at the sight of her burned and tattered clothes.

“Fuck, I liked this shirt,” Jade looks back up. Josie is still very concerned.

“Is this because of our plan last night?”

Jade shakes her head. “No – no, do not blame yourself here. Seriously,” Serious blue eyes train themselves on Josie, reprimanding, as she wipes her own palms off on her dusty jeans.

“If you’re gonna blame anyone, blame Hope.”

“Hope?” The brunette chokes her, going white. “Hope did this to you?” 

“Hope,” Jade swallows thickly and immediately hacks up at the rapid burn of her throat, keeling over to the side of the bed when she feels her stomach rattle.

Josie’s on her in a second, hand rubbing her back. “Fuck, you need blood, don’t you?”

Jade hates the way the hairs on her arms rise at the sound of Josie cursing. Not the time, not the time.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll get it later, I just-“Jade lifts a finger to stop Josie, as she feels the black veins rush to her eyes and swarm them.

She shuts them tightly and focuses on the patter of the building around her. Witches move like ants. In formation, a pattern to everything. She inhales, focusing on Josie’s quick heart, then exhales.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“It is.”

“It’s not,” Jade growls, flipping around to look over at Josie, now beside her. Josie inhales softly but doesn’t move. Jade takes that as confirmation that the black in her eyes hasn’t faded.

“Hope found me last night and didn’t like what I implied.”

“That she’s doing the dream work?”

Jade nods once, lips thin.

“Do you think she’s really doing it though?” Josie’s watching the ground now, tensed, waiting for the strike. Jade’s eyes track the bulge of veins in her wrist as she grips the blankets. Fuck.

“I- “

Jade thinks back to Hope’s careful, focused gaze watching Josie’s window, in the few seconds before Jade ambushed. She tries to imagine Hope hovering over Josie’s sleeping figure, banishing her into some dark spell with black water leaking from her fingertips.

Then she remembers Hope’s vicious grip around Jade’s throat and the black edging on Jade’s vision as Hope told Jade to stay away. Whoever is locking Josie into dreams with Jade, it isn’t Hope. Hope doesn’t want Josie anywhere near Josie.  
“No.” Jade comes to. Josie’s gaze shoots up, leaning in.

“What?!”

“No.” Jade nods again, exhaling as quickly as she stands, hand coming to her throat. “It isn’t her; she doesn’t want me close to you. She wouldn’t want me in a dream world every night. Trust me.”

Jade’s back hits the wall at some point. She wishes it was as sexy as it sounded. Josie’s dark eyes never lose her though, they only grow wider as Jade stuffs herself away. Josie rises from the bed in the same movement that Jade hits the door.

“Jade, if you need blood, I can-“

“No! Don’t even offer that, that’s fucking,” Jade feels her temples throb as the fangs slide in. The thought of Josie wanting and open and beneath Jade’s unforgiving bite is too much and Jade suddenly wants to throw up. Maybe, Hope is onto something –  
“Jade.” Josie is close now. She’s directly in front of Jade, a hair away. Jade can’t leave because her back is against the door and there isn’t enough room to turn and leave without brushing into Josie.

She’s stuck. Jade’s eyes are sealed shut, she’s shaking, her fangs are cutting into her gums as venom pools between her teeth.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Josie. I’m sorry you have to see me this way.”

“This isn’t your fault.” She flips Jade’s own words on her, but they don’t fit. “This isn’t the same, everything about this is – “

“Out of your control.” Josie’s hands curl around the hands deeply entangled in Jade’s hair and they softly unfurl them and pull them back to Jade’s side, Josie’s thumbs spinning soft, calming circles. “Being a ripper is out of your control. I know.”  
Jade’s eyes slowly – fearfully – open. Afraid to see the Josie that awaits her. Inez’s fear but on Josie’s face, that’s what Jade expects. She keeps her eyes on the floor.

Josie won’t have any of it, her hand comes up Jade’s chin and lifts her head. And suddenly, she’s back on the docks, and there’s only them.

“Breathe with me?”

“Why?” Jade’s voice cracks, a protest in the making, but Josie shakes her head. “My Mom had to deal with a lot of her husband, Stefan’s, ripper meltdowns. She wrote about them, said breathing tactics work for panic attacks and meltdowns. So, breathe with me.”  
Her eyes are unwavering, determined, eyebrows are drawn in, the smallest frown set in place. Jade obeys like she always does for Josie.

So, when Josie inhales, she matches her movement. When the sunlight from the window moves and reaches the tip of Jade’s shoe, she doesn’t run. Instead, she lets Josie’s hands glow red, pulling warmth from somewhere within Jade.

She watches Josie’s lips murmur a spell, rose petal pink lips moving like the curves of a river, Jade feels her lips dry, her spine pulls straighter, is this how ancient worshippers felt when they got a glimmer of their god?

A peek into a world they could never experience directly. But they wanted it anyway. They wanted it so bad.

Jade could worship Josie if she wanted her to.

“There.”

Wherever they were, wherever she took Jade to, the bubble popped and suddenly Jade was just an undead girl again, and Josie’s hands weren’t grounding her to this mortal plane.

Jade blinks for the first time, it feels, then several times to shake the intense grab of Josie’s eyes. She’s breathing heavily. If Jade stepped half a step closer, she could feel Josie’s chest against hers.

“What did you just do?”

“I connected to you. I reeled you back in. No thirst, no pain, just…you.”

Jade wants to kiss her. She wants to kiss the ever-living fuck out of her, so she could feel whatever she just felt again. But this time, she’d feel Josie inhale against her before she slipped her arms around Jade’s neck and slipped her hands into her unruly  
blonde locks and dug into her scalp as she arched into Jade’s touch and chased Jade’s lips with her own.

That’s what she wants to do.

She opens the door behind her instead. She turns and steps half-way through the door. She stops. “I’ll find you.” She promises Josie, her back to the girl. “Promise.”

She’s gone a second later.


	7. Velvet

Jade doesn’t have a fucking daylight ring and it sucks.

Josie distracted her too much to fully digest that information, but as far as Jade knows: Hope knocked her out and potentially took her ring.

Jade somehow woke up further into the forest than she remembers. Which means Hope moved or someone else did.

Jade was still burning when she woke up at sunrise. She felt normal now. She had all her normal abilities, but it still scared her. Jade wants to write it off as a one-time thing. She just caught under the sunlight and she hadn’t eaten much the next before. But there was the chance someone slowed her healing factor down purposely to catch her in the light.

She could’ve died. Actually. Again.

“Jade?”

From the corner of the blood bank, atop the large cooler, Jade doesn’t look over as MG pops his head in. Open relief floods his features as he rushes in.

“Dude, I’ve been looking for you all day-“

MG’s first step lands him on top of a large, scattered pile of empty, drained blood bags. The floor is covered in them, Jade is covered in it, her fingers are wrapped around the newest plastic victim with her eyes squeezed shut. It’s never enough, it’s never enough-

“Jade, jade, it’s okay,” The bag rips in his hands as she drains the last of the contents and her hard fingertips dig into it. She reaches down and over to grab another bag, but MG’s hand stops her.

“What happened?” He asks, lowly, sitting beside her, closing the container. “Bad day.” She hums back, already accepting that her blood feast was over. “I’m tired.” She continues, exhausting weighing on her shoulders. 

Jade thought this feeling of weariness was from frying in the forest, but now she’s starting to think fighting constant hunger was weighing on her. It was a daily fight.

Jade hated being a ripper with every fiber in her body. People don’t understand how much she thinks of blood. She wakes up to get to her daily morning blood bag. She pushes through class to get to the lunch blood bags, she fights through the evening, resisting the urge to slip into this very room and drain every bag, every container, then every person who tries to stop her.

She goes to sleep, tongue running over her teeth over and over, relishing the metallic taste leftover no matter how much she brushes her teeth. It was a silent battle. Emma knew a bit. MG knew more. And now Josie knew.  
And it made Jade want to cry. She hated it.

“What set you off?” He asks, suddenly, after what feels like a full 10 minutes of silence. Somewhere in her internal monologue, he settled her against his chest, holding her close. How does he keep it together, she wondered, as he rubbed her back.  
“For me, like two months ago, I went to this party with a girl from Mystic Falls. And she was really pretty, and I was nervous as shit,” Jade groans, forehead turning to lay against his sternum. “Oh no, MG don’t repeat my ripper origin story.”

He shakes his head rapidly. “No, no it’s not the same. We were dancing and she left for a bit, and I couldn’t find her but when she came back, she must’ve tripped or something, and she was bleeding on her neck. And she wanted to get freaky and,” He blushes, but he looks down darkly. She knows the look. The burning shame.

“It’s the wildest feeling. Wanting so many things at once. In one moment, I’m a normal teenage boy, who wants to have some fun, and in the next, I’m wondering where I can bite to get the most blood at once. Sometimes I'm thinking of both things and it makes me so-“Jade knows. He doesn’t have to finish it. She feels the familiar sting of tears in the corner of her eyes, they roll down, as she remains motionless. 

“How did you walk away?”

“Just like you did. You just walk and don’t stop.” He looks down at her. “Difference is, I don’t let the shame bury me. You can’t hold it all in. Kaleb found me after. He gave me a bat; we went to the junkyard next town over and went to town. It’s fucking awesome.”

Jade wants to laugh, she does. She can imagine the whole scene, it’s right out of a Netflix original and it sounds fucking perfect after wanting to rip someone’s head off.

Instead, she pulls her snotty, tear-streaked face off his chest to look up at him. “Why do you bother with me, MG?”

His dark eyes, almond-shaped, wise beyond his years. Forgiving. Unwavering. He and Josie hold that same gaze.

“Because you’re like me and we’re in this together.”

After MG walks you back to the mill under the safety of the moon, hand never leaving your shoulder, as he promises to grab you in the morning. The junkyard isn’t far, apparently, and it’s only like a 20-minute run if she really needs it.  
MG might be the sweetest guy Jade has ever met. The type of guy she wished she liked; it’d be so easy to fall for his unrelenting kindness. But Jade knows wherever her heart is tangled, it’s stuck and isn’t moving any time soon. She just wished she knew where it was too.

In front of the door, he slides on his daylight ring onto her pointer finger. It’s a tad bit big, but it’s a ring none the less. He assures he has a back-up in his dorm, and he wants her to have something before the morning comes. She can file for a new one with Emma and it’ll be ready before the end of the week. Jade remembers the troupe of young witches who’d travel between vampire classes at the end of every week delivering the daylight rings.

But even with all of this reassurance that Jade’s bender is okay. That Josie doesn’t hate her, that Hope probably doesn’t want to kill her, Jade is up, painting the outer walls of the mill, wondering if she can renovate the bathroom into a dual indoor and outdoor shower. Because the pipes outside aren’t as worn as the shitty ones in the walls and Jade can’t sleep and isn’t gonna attempt to, not knowing if she’ll find Josie waiting for her.

Part of her hates making Josie wait for her. No such girl should be made to wait. But Jade hates herself a bit more. So she doesn’t give in to the exhaustion. And she doesn’t consider it, even when Wendy is behind her and a second away from casting a permanent sleep spell.

“Don’t you sleep, you fucking bat –“

Jade promptly dodges the incoming shoe, leaning back on her heels to stop the wooden ladder from swaying backward into the ground. The blonde lowers brown-paint covered brush, ducking her head back through the window. “Hey, I’m just trying to-“   
She ducks again, the other heeled shoe narrowly missing the ladder. “Get down, Jade,” Wendy demands in a quiet, firm voice that promises a very bad consequence if Jade doesn’t obey. She does, tossing the brush back into the near bucket, and hoping the sudden break in painting won’t ruin the paint job. 

Hopping off the ladder, Jade tosses it into the equipment area behind her, before she slips herself through the open window before sitting on the inner ledge. 

Inside, Wendy waits on the bed, in a large t-shirt and not much else. Jade can appreciate, slowly, over the last few weeks, that Wendy is less scared around her. Less tense. Still a bitch but not so certain Jade’s gonna snap her neck in her sleep.  
“What are you still doing up if you’re having witchy dreams?”

Jade pulls her knee up to loosen the double-knotted boots off her foot, with a thud. “I don’t feel like sleeping.”

“Bullshit, you never say no to girls,” She looks up, with an unimpressed single arched eyebrow, before she tosses the boot aside and does the same to the other shoe, looking back down. 

“Whatever you’re running from, you either run somewhere else or you deal with it quietly, I can’t sleep with you banging on the roof above me,” Jade looks up again. Wendy isn’t phased by the double entendre.  
“If that’s your message then-“ Jade turns to head back out the window and continue the paint job in her socks.

“Jade.” She looks back again and it’s Wendy, honest to god, fidgeting. Her tongue runs over her teeth, before poking back against her cheek. Wendy doesn’t fidget, not under any human eye. “If you’re gonna keep working, we need to figure out a living situation. Like a floor plan,”

She gestures to their shabby living room. With one bed in the corner – meant for Jade, solely occupied by Wendy because Jade’s too much of a coward to tell her off and…she needs it more than Jade does, Jade’s fine with the sleeping blanket.  
Beyond the bed is a spare couch, the thick rug with Jade’s sleeping bag and Wendy’s abandoned one. The rest are bags of clothes, empty grocery bags, and tools. Not the best living quarters.

Jade nods once, watching Wendy squirm. “Does that mean you like –"

“I want a room. To split this.” She gestures again, finishing Jade’s sentence, letting the girl shut her mouth with a swift nod. Then another.

“Oh yeah, sure, I,” Jade turns back into the room, letting her legs swing from the ledge. “Does that mean you’re staying?” Wendy pulls herself up on her elbows, pulling the covers with her as she goes. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Because you’ve been trapped in a prison world for 10 years, with your humanity, no werewolf transformations, or psychopathy, so out of all of them, she had experienced 10 actual years. And the more Jade thinks about it, high school sucks. Like a lot.

“Noo reason,” Jade shrugs with a slow growing grin. “Just didn’t think you’d stick around is all.” Wendy rolls her eyes at that, turning over and tucking herself back in. But Jade catches the sight of a small smile. “Well, I’m no Diego. And you don’t scare me so, whatever, just make me a room.”

Jade still doesn’t have it in her to sleep, so when morning rolls around, she’s already tucked away in the cafeteria – freshly showered, blonde hair pin-rolled into a half-up, half-down do, nails cut, a uniform jacket thrown atop a neatly ironed oxford shirt and slacks. It’s still tucked into boots, but credit is owed where its due.

She’s usually up minutes before class and has enough time to throw on some clothes and zip into her seat with breakfast nestled away in her bag, but today, she doesn’t have sleep to relish in.

So she watches the sunrise through the wall-tall windows and slide across the floor, making MG’s green and black daylight ring twinkle. It’s only after minutes of staring and a brief google search that Jade realizes MG had a daylight ring modeled after a Green Lantern ring. Jade snickers at that, what a nerd. Gotta love em though.

Slowly, the crowd rolls in. Younger kids first. Then the older witches, then werewolves. Vampires, it seemed like, were late by nature. Time wasn’t such a big deal when you would never age again. MG and Kaleb pop up after time with plenty of food on their plates and blood bags to go around. Jade passes her blood bag ration to Kaleb, knowing she still owed him but reassures MG when he nudges her with his foot, watching the whole interaction concerned.

She wasn’t hungry. Picky, maybe. She’d be hungry by tonight, but it wasn’t an issue for the moment. Jade hung back, nursing the same pile of hash browns shoved her way by the boys, while they debated a plan of diplomatic attack for the lounge issue. They were either gonna strike this afternoon or tomorrow night when the werewolves had their weekly pack meeting before the weekend. Jade was a fan of the latter, but apparently, Rafael skipped them for –

“Hey, Jade?”

Looking up, Jade was met with a sheepish Josie standing before her with her tray. Donning a simple skirt and a Salvatore sweater over an oxford shirt, the sunlight behind her made her radiant in shades of brown and red.

“Hey, Josie! Take a seat, we could use your help,” MG pipes up somewhere behind Jade, who’s still openly staring. 

“Promise not to tell the council though,” Someone hits her side hard and Jade finally shakes out of it to meet Josie’s gaze. “Hi,” Josie beams. “Can I sit?” Jade nods quickly and slides over, allowing Josie to sit beside her. The vampire table was pretty empty, but it still felt like Josie and Jade were closer than necessary.

Josie sets her tray down – some fruits and a sandwich but not much more. Jade’s eyes flicker over to Josie’s slim figure, a waist that slips so easily into the tight nook of her skirt. The blonde frowns, hoping the brunette was eating enough –  
“So, I, uh, I never saw you again and I know you said you’d find me, but I was worried after the daylight thing so,”

“Oh my god,” Jade’s flushing now. She’d totally forgotten the fucking conversation they had. “I am so sorry about that. I meant to find you after,” Jade says turning to face Josie fully, pushing her own tray away. “I got –“

Flashes of empty blood bags and a deranged Jade shoot through her head before she clamps down on her words and swallows. “Distracted, I’m sorry.” Josie waves her off, looking down for a moment with a small grimace. “It’s okay, it happens –“

“It shouldn’t.” Jade interrupts, firmly, leaning forward to poke into Josie’s bubble, causing the other girl to look up, meeting Jade’s smoldering gaze. “And it won’t happen, again. I’m sorry.”

Josie doesn’t break eye contact as her grimace turns up into a small, genuine smile, before nodding. “Yeah, okay.” Jade nods too, with her own smile, feeling the chips fall back into place with them. “Good, now, how can I help you at –“

She looks around the semi-abandoned table, before waving around. “Casa Vampire.”

“No way, we named it Good Eats for Ghouls,” Kaleb pipes in, popping his head from behind Josie. Jade picks up her waiting mug of coffee, already shaking her head. “No, we’re throwing that out, we’re not even ghouls,”

“Well, first, I wanted to give you an update on the dream situation. There’s been none so I think whoever was doing it could’ve been scared off, so we’re in the clear,” 

Jade winces from behind her mug. “Oof, yeah, about that,” She watches the excitement slip off of Josie’s face, only to met with a deadpan. “You haven’t been sleeping have you,”

“I told you vamps don’t need as much sleep,” Josie’s rolls her eyes and looks back ahead, stabbing into her fruit. “Don’t BS me,” She looks back over at the insistent nature of Jade’s peering gaze. “I-“ She softens for whatever reason, as Jade waits, hands fiddling in her lap. “Are you okay? Seriously.”

Jade moves to nod and stops. She thinks about how hard it was to get dressed when she was always a hair away from falling asleep in place. She thinks about MG pulling Jade from the blood bank with the blonde tucked under his arm. She thinks about the mill that’s almost entirely brown, a few miles into the woods. 

Then she nods, exhaling, letting go. “Yes, I will be,” Josie waits for more it seems, as Jade tucks a piece of hair behind her hair, licking her lips as she feels her skin prickle under Josie’s gaze.

“I’m exhausted and thirsty and pissed off at Hope thinks she can kill whoever annoys her, but,” Her lips pull into a tight line, facing the brunette. “I’ll get my homework from class then go back to the mill. Sleep, for real. Then I’ll actually get back to you. Text you, even.”

Josie snickers at that, before nodding. “I’d like that. I won’t be asleep when you are, but we can figure out if things are over with. In the meantime…” She slips a hand into her jacket pocket and digs out a ring before moving to take Jade’s hand and pausing when she takes the pale hand into her own.

“Is this,” Jade waves her off with a nod, encouraging her to go ahead already. Jade would never really get over Josie’s touch. Nagging and addictive. She always wanted more.

Josie shows her a ring. It’s a single gold band with a ring of velvet red through the center. Simple, but gorgeous. Jade won’t lose this one, she’s sure of it. A personal gift from Josie Saltsman. My god.

Jade tries her damnest not to inhale as Josie slides the ring on and down to the knuckle, her fingertips lingering against her knuckle. She pulls away, the points of contact burning Jade’s hand delightfully.

“It’s my fault you lost it,” Jade rolls her eyes at that, this time. “And I didn’t want you walking around, almost dying again,” Jade meets her gaze, eyebrows raised at the comment before they both fall into a giggle. “Noted, Jos,” Somewhere in the distance, a chime rings, signaling the near beginning of class.

MG and Kaleb – a pair that Jade only now remembers is there – clambers up. “I’ll get your homework, Jade, no blood bags owed this time,” Jade shoots him a finger gun with a wink. “Atta boy,”

“I gotta go too, but seriously,” Josie stands, pulling her bag onto her shoulders, hands coming to strap the bag on tightly, schoolgirl instinct, she looks down at Jade firmly. “Text me, don’t make me find you again.” She threatens teasingly, Jade grins at that, pink tongue trapped between two rows of perfect whites.

“You got it, officer.” Josie’s eyes meet Jade’s one last time, as she twirls and makes her way out of the cafeteria. 

MG and Kaleb follow after with MG gesturing for Jade to text him. She shoots him a thumbs up, before she looks down at her ring finger, turning the beautiful ornament on her digit.

Her heart skips, happily.


	8. Morning Gloom

True to her word, Jade skips class. Choosing to enjoy the warm Spring afternoon from the comfort of her bed, thick quilt blankets wrapped around a shirtless torso and boxers – Jade can’t remember if it’s hers or Diego’s, but it’s washed so fuck it.  
The soft afternoon sun seeps through the window adjacent to her bed, clinging softly to the paneled floor, revealing the slips of dirt and grass underneath the floor. It was peaceful in a way Jade never took a moment to appreciate.

From her backside, Jade’s eyes fluttered open with a yawn, tongue curling as she stretched – only for her movement to be halted by a heavy body atop her own. A hand curls onto her side, stopping any further movement.

Jade looks down, vision blurry as she registers the heat of another person on her body. A leg tangled with her own, a bare hip touching her thigh, a stomach to her own. A mop of brown hair lays on her collarbone. “It’s too early to get up,” Josie moans, flipping her face to face Jade, eyes still closed, mouth fully pouting.

Jade didn’t move. She didn’t breathe. When did this happen? Did she compel Josie, did she –

“You’re thinking too hard, you’ve gone all…” Her hand slides from Jade’s side to her abdomen, the pad of her pointer finger slides along her bare stomach, skimming the edge of her sports bra. Jade’s lip pulls back between her teeth, where she can feel her molars shifting, fangs replacing them. 

Jade’s head lolls back, eyes rolling shut as Josie’s palm slides back down, dragging firmly against Jade’s rolling, turning abdomen, heat pooling below her waistline. “Stiff.” Jade’s eyes are pulled back to Josie when she feels her shifts up to look at Jade fully.  
Her smile is easy-going, comfortable, but there’s something in the way her teeth are pointed – the way her eyes are crinkling. She’s cocky, confident like she knows she’s the reason Jade is shaking like a leaf.

“Don’t act like you don’t want me here, Jade,” Josie slides up, pulling her very half-naked body fully along Jade’s skin, leaving Jade very very light-headed. Josie’s lips settle by Jade’s ear, her bottom lip skimming her ear-lope. “You were never a good liar, baby,”  
Jade shoots awake, landing on the floor beside her bed as she shakes the phantom image of Josie atop her. That wasn’t Josie. Not real Josie. She wouldn’t be asleep now, it was the middle of the day. She wouldn’t – no, even if Jade’s cockiest moments did she think Josie really really wanted her. Not with Hope Mikaelson walking around. Claiming Josie with every look, every brush of the hand. But the blonde couldn’t shake the shiver that ran right between her legs, remembering Josie’s low, guttural voice.

“Yo yo – what the hell happened?”

Jade looks behind her to the doorway, where Wendy stands, very confused, then pissed. “You didn’t bring some Mystic Falls cheerleader back right? Because I don’t feel like sleeping in your –“

“No,” Jade chokes out, holding a hand up to stop Wendy in her tracks. “No cheerleaders,” She adds, shaking her head, as she stands, grabbing a blanket to wrap around her – to which Wendy rolls her eyes. “How modest,”

Wendy marches over to Jade’s clothes, digging in the bag before retrieving black jeans and one of Jade’s over-sized t-shirts. “Get dressed, your friends wanna go to the grill tonight, Raf’s gonna be there,” Jade doesn’t miss the purr surrounding Rafael’s name. She can only exhale. 

Jade holds out the clothes Wendy picked and she’s only a little peeved that it’s probably the outfit Jade would’ve chosen for herself anyway. Jade looks over her shoulder, to see Wendy on the couch, typing away. She throws the blanket to the side and tugs on the jeans a moment after.

“So MG told me what happened…” Jade hops around to face Wendy as she buttons her jeans only to see Wendy already looking.

“Are you okay?” She finishes genuine concern waiting for the blonde. Jade is taken back for a moment, pausing as she pulls her head through the hole

“I’m good.” Wendy crosses her arms, and Jade sinks back into his heels, hands coming to wrestle the shirt wrapped around her neck. “I just had a-“She finishes pulling the shirt over. She just chooses to ignore the way Wendy’s eyes only flicker back up then.  
That’s a rabbit hole she isn’t going down right now.

“Moment. MG handled it. I’m good now.”

Wendy scans her face like she always does. And Jade stands there, grimace and all, waiting for Wendy’s approval. Like she always does. Wendy eventually nods.

“If you say so.” Wendy thinks for a moment, tapping a black glossy nail to her jaw before she reaches behind her to grab Jade’s phone from the couch and tossing it to the blonde. 

“Oh yeah, the twin-“

“Josie, I know you know her name-“

“Said to text her. Said it was urgent.” Wendy stans, grabbing her makeup bag and heading over to the bathroom. “We’re grilling at 8, be there or be square,” She’s gone a second later, the door closing swiftly, leaving Jade staring at the door, wondering what ever is going on in Wendy’s hurricane of a mind.

Unlocking the phone as she falls back on the couch, she’s met with a few Snapchat messages from MG and Kaleb, a lone text from Alyssa, and two messages from Josie.

She clicks Josie’s first.

Josie: I forgot to tell you earlier, but Hope told me she didn’t mean to do what she did. Bad night, apparently.

Josie: Sleep well, though.

Jade’s typing a response before she finishes reading the first.

Jade: Hope is a dick, what else is new. It's cool though. If you’re not pissed.

Jade: I slept how I slept.

Jade just needed confirmation of whether her last dream was a Josie dream or just Jade being gay dream.

Josie: What’s that mean?

Jade: Which text?

Josie: Uh…second one, obviously.

Jade: Obviously.

Jade: I don’t sleep well, usually, but I got a few solid hours so I can’t be mad.

Josie: Oh.

A solid minute passes before Josie replies. In the back of her mind, Jade knows she could do her hair or makeup or something while waiting for the text – but she doesn’t move.

Josie: I’m sorry.

Jade: You say that a lot – how’s me not sleeping well your fault?

Josie: I mean, I know it’s not, but I’m still sorry. Sleep’s important.

Jade chuckles.

Jade: Yeah, sure is.

Jade: Have you been sleeping better, with no dreams?

Josie: Yeah, I have. Thank you.

Jade nods, curt, despite no one being there, lips curling into a straight line.

Josie: It’s a bit boring though?

Jade: Oh?

Josie: I have like no classes with you, it was the only chance to chat with you lmao

Jade: I didn’t know you wanted to.

Jade: Chat with me, that is.

Josie: I do.

Josie: We’re friends when you’re not trying to rip my head off.

Jade feels the familiar wave of guilt hit when she remembers manhandling Josie around the prison world, the genuine glee at the prospect of killing what Alaric loved most right in front of him.

She can’t shake the shame.

Josie: That was a bad joke, I’m sorry.

Josie: Like, legit sorry.

Jade: It’s okay.

Jade: I’M sorry about that. I’m sorry about that whole shit show. I wouldn’t hurt you.

Josie: I know.

She knows. Jade doesn’t.

Jade: How was your day?

Jade tilts so she’s laying back on the couch.

Josie: Uneventful. The council is fighting again over the lounge room again.

Josie: You wouldn’t know anything about that would you?

Jade: Uh, yeah, I do. I may have encouraged the revolution.

Josie: Are YOU the reason the vampires want the lounge room back?

Jade: It’s the only place with a vending machine. That’s valuable as shit.

Josie: Lmao you’re gonna pay for that, I just got them to stop fighting for it.

Josie: If they fight again, I’m getting you – YOU can stop that mess.

Jade: Deal.

Josie: How are you settling back into Salvatore?

Josie: I couldn’t imagine doing what you are.

Jade knows she looks like an idiot right now, smiling at her phone for minutes at a time, but alas.

Jade: There are good times, bad times, mainly good though.

Jade: I need to find a fucking job though.

Josie: There's no spots at the hospital?

Jade: Nothing I can’t get without a rec letter.

Josie: I’m sure Emma could give you one?

Jade: All her letters have to be cosigned by Alaric – so that’s a no go.

Josie: Damn. Think I could convince him?

Jade: I think you could convince anyone if you wanted to, but Alaric is not just anyone. So no. No worries though.

There’s no response for several minutes, the chat bubble is up though. Eventually, there is a reprieve.

Josie: What about the vet?

Jade: They’re hiring?

Josie: Most of the time, they always need assistants. I would’ve done it last summer, but I get too distracted.

Josie: By the dogs, obviously.

Jade: Obviously.

Jade: But animals hate me since I smell like bad news.

Josie’s chat bubble appears and vanishes again before the message comes through.

Josie: Shit.

That’s new.

Josie: I could, like, make you a charm that’ll make you smell less like a vampire. It’ll take a while though. Maybe try the dentist? I know him personally, so I can put in a good word.

Jade looks over to her bag laying on the floor beside her. Sitting at the top of the mess, was the application for equipment assistant. Mostly filled, Jade just needed to add some essentials and it’d be good to go. 

Jade: Deal. If I drop it off today, you can make it happen?

Jade ends up ditching Wendy at the mill because she really does need a job and the sooner she gets these few applications in, the more likely she could get hired and pay the invoices piling in the corner.

There’s a couple of places to go: library, grocery store, antique shop – which overly like witches so Jade probably isn’t getting that one – along with the dentist, mystic grill, and the vet.

Mystic Falls Animal Hospital is closing by the time she slips in and out of the building, dropping off the application in the slot waiting for the front. It smells like dog shampoo and treats, but oddly enough it doesn’t bother Jade. Even if the chihuahua in the front tried to bite her ankles off. 

What she doesn’t expect, is to find Tori walking a pretty Great Dane on the curb outside. She doesn’t notice Jade at first, checking her phone as her dog sniffs the patch of trees beside the building, tail waggling as they paw the flower bed.  
Tori’s wearing shorts and a tank, dark hair pulled back into a messy bun, revealing a small tattoo on her shoulder, beneath the spaghetti strap. Her skin is glowing underneath the sunset, a warm brown.

“Jade?” Tori’s looking up now, surprised as the blonde girl steps out from the building before she slowly grins. “And here I thought you were avoiding me,” She chuckles, stepping onto the sidewalk to approach Jade. “I totally wasn’t,” Jade says with a half-laugh, remembering the vivid panic in her bones as she smelled Tori’s blood halfway across the bar.

“I lost your number.” She admits plainly, to which Tori shoots her an incredulous expression. “No way.”

“Yes, way.”

“In those tight little jeans of yours? Nothing slips out of those pockets.” She teases, tongue swiping her bottom lip. Jade laughs at that, hands slipping into her pockets, as she looks off for a moment of reprieve before looking back to Tori. “What else explains me losing your number then?”

Tori stares at Jade, eyebrows pulled together with a small smirk. Jade shrugs, light-heartedly, leaning against the pole as she arched a single eyebrow. “Don’t believe me?”

“Give me your phone.”

Jade thinks back to the long text convo between her and Josie, and whether Tori happens to know her.

Jade doesn’t know how to rationalize this whole Tori situation in context to her Josie situation. She and Tori were flirting, obviously. Two girls, who were hot and had eyes. No problem. Her and Josie were…her and Josie.   
Jade hands over the phone anyway. Cause why not.

Tori types in her number then move to her phone to hit a few buttons before looking back to Jade’s phone in her other hand and tapping a few more buttons then handing the phone back to the blonde.

Waiting for Jade was Tori’s full contact info, along with a selfie of the girl in a cheer gear, along with an arsenal of emojis beside her name. Fuck, Wendy was right, Jade does attract of Mystic Fall cheerleaders.  
“Now you have no excuse,” Tori turns to walk, and Jade follows her. “Where are you heading to?”

“The Grill, some friends are meeting up tonight,”

“Friends as cute as you?” Jade snickers.

“No, that’s impossible.”

“I’ll see about that.” Tori counters as they turn a corner, leaving the direct beam of the sun to enter a shady street. “So, this might seem a little sudden but,” Jade watches as the girl squirms, nervous.

“There’s a bonfire next Friday, after the football game, and I wanted to know if you wanted to go…with me.” She stops, Jade stopping with her, the Grill waiting behind. Tori looks up at Jade with a wide smile, eyes shifting every few seconds.   
“Do I have to bring marshmallows?” Jade asks, tentatively, hoping to break the tension a bit – it works. Tori laughs, shaking her head. “No, just bring you, and a few friends if you want.”

Jade nods, hearing the familiar shouts and bouts of MG and Kaleb inside. She grins. “I will.”

“Cool.”

“Cool.” Tori’s eyes twinkle, as she sets a hand on Jade’s arm as she moves around her, with her dog. “I’ll, uh, see you then – and don’t forget to text me.”

Jade has a moment of Deja vu, between the short brunette before her and the tall one sauntering around Salvatore. That’s a problem. A big one.

“I won’t.”


	9. I'm Not Her

“Raf, Jed, this is Jade.” MG starts, as Kaleb returns to the table with their food and drinks.

“Jade, this is Rafael and Jed.”

Raf and Jed were what werewolves always looked like. Tall, broad, and boyishly handsome. Jade could feel Wendy hum appreciatively. Jade gets it, but she’s been down that road and couldn’t be less interested.

“Jed, Rafael,” Jade holds her hand over the crowded table. Jed shakes it first, albeit with a frown, then Rafael shakes it with a small nod.

“As nice as it is to meet you, Jade, what are we doing here?”

Here happens to be a table with MG & Kaleb, Alyssa & Wendy, and the two wolf boys. Jade technically made the vampires outnumber anybody else, but she ignored the fact.  
“This isn’t council stuff right? Because Emma said-“

“Forget Emma, Jed, can’t we just talk over fries and drinks?”

The drinks were a couple dozen beers compelled over by Kaleb. Beyond the fries and beer with a large communal pizza, caked with half a dozen different toppings that would’ve made Jade’s skin break-out if there were any living cells left.

“Don’t act like you’re interested in dinner and drinks now, Alyssa,” Raf drawls, rolling his eyes as he leans back into his seat, unimpressed.

“We’re here,” Kaleb butts in, eying Alyssa to settle down. “Because vampires want into the lounge –“

“No.” Jed cuts in, firmly.

“Now, Jed, we’ve got a little schedule and everything –“

“No, MG, I’m serious,” Jed leans forward. “The wolves need one place in this school where they don’t have to worry about vampires or witches –“ He shoots a pointed glare at Alyssa, then looks back to MG. “And without hybrids.”

“Got a problem with hybrids?” Jade pokes only to be elbowed by MG. “Jed, we get that,” He starts.

“We do.” Kaleb adds.

“But, the lounge has benefits no other student space gets. Shouldn’t that be a shared space instead of one groups?” Jed shakes his head, crossing his arm. Rafael finishes nibbling on his slice of pizza to chip in.  
“Guys, we get that the lounge is sorta the best place in school-“

“It’s not sorta, it is the best space.” Wendy chips in, much to everyone’s surprise. She licks her lips, wiping off some excess fry salt onto a napkin.

“It used to be the witches you know,” Jade waves Wendy off, cutting the girl off before she starts. “No, no, we’re not doing this.”  
Alyssa is having none of that. “No, she’s onto something – we want in.”

“No you don’t, if you want into this, you can figure something out after this chat.” Jade finalizes, shooting Alyssa daggers before looking back to MG with a nod to continue. MG looks back to Jed.  
“What will it take to give us the room?”

“Why would we give you the room when you have the rooftop? You don’t need the lounge, you just want it because we have it.”

“No, Jed, we want it because we need a place for the vampires to feed and relax that – with or without their daylight rings – without burning to death. We can’t use the rooftop half the time without leaving the building.”  
“You’re supposed to keep the rings on all the time.”

“Do you keep jewelry on all the time, Jed?” MG retorts.

“If you own any,” Kaleb adds snidely to which Jed huffs heavily and Jade slaps Kaleb’s shoulder. “Down boy,” She says pointedly to Kaleb who rolls his eyes.

“Okay, MG, if we give you the room –“ Jed quickly looks over to Raf, who pats his arm. “Which we aren’t, but like hypothetically, what we even supposed to do with the wolves? Shove them onto the rooftop?”  
“My point exactly. This conversation is over, MG, what you’re asking for is stupid and reasonable.”

“No, listen, if we can’t switch-“

“Which is totally reasonable, since you guys actually need sunlight and we don’t-“ MG elbows him this time, rising as Jed and Rafael stand. “Okay, I get that you guys don’t wanna give it up, but what if we come up with a schedule, I even have some time charts,” MG offers pleadingly, moving behind him to dig a folder out of his bag, only for Jed to forcibly exit the booth and disappear through the double doors.

MG sighs loudly, falling back into the seat. “That was a bust.”

“Jed is fucking asshole.” Rafael, who only now exited the booth turned to Kaleb, as he pulled on his hoodie. “Watch it, Kaleb, you’re no better.”

Kaleb looks over dangerously. Jade clears her throat. “Cut it out, both of you.”

Jade settles her eyes on Rafael, who waits, head raised, shoulders rolled back. All alpha.

“Rafael, MG does legit have a time-table. If you can convince Jed to look them over…” MG handed the folder over to Raf at Jade’s beckoning. Raf took the folders with a sigh and turned them over with a sigh. “I don’t know, Jade, you’ve pissed him off.”  
“That,” She pointed to him, with her pointer. “was technically Kaleb.”

“Worth it.” Kaleb added with a shrug. “But regardless, just look it over yourself. You’re a big boy, you can do it.” Rafael rolled his eyes, but nods nonetheless. “Alright, whatever, no promises.”

He turned to walk off, dark eyes pausing on Wendy for a moment before he walks off after Jed. Wendy clicked her tongue, leaning into Jade. “He’s into me.”

“Who isn’t?” Jade drawled sarcastically. Wendy grins happily at that. “I knew you’d see reason.”

“This was a bust.” MG said, setting down the beer he must’ve drained in the moments after Raf’s departure. “But thank you, Jade, for getting Raf the papers. I don’t think he’s reading though.”  
MG sighed again. “I color-coded that shit man.”

“He’ll read. Seems like a reasonable guy.”

“Very reasonable.” Wendy purrs.

“Jed isn’t though.” Alyssa added, with a shrug, as she scooted in to take their spots. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She hums smugly, swiping up a fry and dipping it into Jade’s milkshake before looking firmly at Wendy. “Speaking of the council-when are you usurping Josie?”

“Why-“ Jade interrupts, looking to Wendy accusingly. “Are you usurping Josie?”

Wendy looks between the two girls, before shrugging. “Haven’t made up my mind yet.”

“About usurping her or why Josie?” Jade pushes.

“Both.” She responds dryly. “Seems like a lot of work.”

“But you wouldn’t have to sleep in the mill and you’re legit the most experienced witch in school. You wouldn’t just be Hope’s witch puppet. Saltzman can’t see past her heart eyes for Hope.” Jade rolls her eyes at that. She’s right though.  
“You know it’s true.” When she looks back to Alyssa, she’s looking at Jade. “You’d benefit too, Jade, maybe she’ll give you the time of day –“

This time it’s Jade who stands. “I’m gonna go. Text me if you need me.”

“Jade-“ MG calls out behind her, but she doesn’t turn back around.

She wakes up in the forest, the roots of a tree digging into her lower back uncomfortably as her head lolls to the side, the muscles behind her eyes aching in strain, as she forces them open.

She can’t be far from school. The forestry is all the same, but she’s too far to smell the familiar pine or hear the birds. She’s still in Virginia but she’s nowhere near Salvatore.

“Damn it!” A sea of sparks shoot out from a small clearing parallel to Jade, causing her to duck and cover her head as the red hot sparks of magic shoot over her head and disappear into the wed dirt below. Rain patters from above, mostly blocked by the tall evergreen above her. But still, droplets are beginning to roll through her damp hair and down her back.

Jade pushes herself onto her hands and feet, slowly moving around the bushes surrounding her to look into the clearing. Several feet ahead was the entrance to a large cavern. Kneeling in the entrance in an ordinary Salvatore rope, back to Jade, is a young girl. Her dark hair clings to her figure, since the clearing has a wide opening above, allowing the filtered moonlight to come through.

In front of her is a small wooden stump. Jade can see a large celtic-like symbol atop the wood, drawn in something darker, murkier than blood. But it’s too much for any human to withstand. Whoever drew it, was most definitely suffering from blood loss.  
The girl in front of the stump draws her hands back over the symbol before tightly wounding her fingers back together as she begins a methodic chant. Slowly, the blood begins to burn and hiss, red mist rising into the air as the inscription burns and burns, bright enough to make Jade cover her eyes. Only the spell doesn’t work, it sparks out again. And this time, a large beam of blood red energy lodges itself into Jade’s chest.

“Fuck!” She shoots back with a muffled scream as she feels it tear through her chest before exiting her back with a sick, wet pop. Jade falls back onto the floor, hand coming to cover her chest, as blood pummels out.

“Well look what we have here…” The girl appears over Jade with a wide, cruel smile. But instead of Josie’s dark, warm eyes. It’s black nothing but black. “Run.” She whispers before she sees Josie’s black clawed hand dig into Jade’s chest.

Jade considers herself to be fairly rational when it comes to solving problems. If she was given all the necessary pieces and enough time, she believed she could solve – if not all – problems handed to her.  
This problem, however, had her stumped.

Someone placed the Cincillo spell on her and Josie, trapping them in a dream world. The journals Jade found indicated that this spell only lasted only a night. This problem was hitting two weeks now. This mean:

1\. Someone was casting it every single night.

Which would take a great heap of magic, enough that it’d set off some magical alarm and alert Alaric and Emma. This could not be a random student. It had to be someone who either worked outside of the boundaries of Salvatore or someone who could circumvent the magical rules here at Salvatore. Both roads led back to Hope Mikaelson.

But Jade had a tough time believing Hope was trapping Josie in a dream world with a girl Hope had killed a week prior. It was counterproductive and moronic. And it wouldn’t explain why Hope needed Josie out of action. There had to be something Hope didn’t want Josie seeing – and maybe she was using Jade as a distraction. That line of thought bred very real possibilities that’d require some sleuthing – if Jade could get close enough.  
There are other options Jade also had to look at though.

2\. Someone cast the spell and linked it to a magical object that allowed the spell to continually recast itself.

This was more likely than someone recasting the spell, without fail, night after night. Jade could stand behind this theory. Technically, Hope could’ve also done this, but Jade wasn’t so sure Alaric would let the daughter of Klaus Mikaelson walk around with magical artifacts powerful enough to trap people’s subconscious. But still, it was a thread.

Jade is momentarily drawn back to the moment where Lizzie was originally checking out the book, which brought another more sinister theory. Lizzie was putting Josie under with Jade for some reason. Jade liked to play with the idea that Hope and Lizzie had some forbidden affair and didn’t want Josie to find out, but, again, locking someone away in their dreams seemed drastic for some nightly forest fucking. Jade put that theory second to Hope’s. It’d be investigated but she didn’t have much hope.  
What Jade needed to do is figure out what this object was and where it was hidden. It couldn’t be too far, she hypothesized. If it was too far to find and powerful enough to still trap her and Josie, then she wouldn’t be the only one after it – and half of Mystic Falls would be dealing with the same issue. Whatever it was, it was in nearby proximity.

And the last theory, well, Jade didn’t like it very much at all.

3\. Josie wasn’t telling the whole story.

Jade couldn’t ignore last nights’ dream. It was very much a shared dream if Josie’s warm hand rammed into Jade’s diaphragm was anything to go by. Yet, there was no text from Josie, nothing indicating she had seen the same thing.  
Jade wondered if this repeat dream trapping was causing Jade’s consciousness to blur lines. See things she wasn’t supposed to. But whatever she saw in the forest was a dream, right? But who would be dreaming of that? Unless it was Josie’s nightmare.  
Quite the nightmare.

Jade wants to ask, but they were friendly now. Friends. Jade almost didn’t want to push. She’ll think over that one. Put it as third in her priority list. Maybe visiting the place in the woods would help.  
And just like that, Jade had an action plan.

It was just afternoon, lunchtime in full effect as various Salvatore students crossed the large grass clearing, setting blankets down before chatting with their friends over small lunches. In the corner, under a large tree where MG and Kaleb yapped beside to – surprisingly – Alyssa Chang. Alyssa didn’t look too annoyed either. But if she had, Jade didn’t notice. She wasn’t paying attention anymore.

Across the yard, at a small table – one of the few available and immediately taken by their cliché – was Lizzie Saltzman with Josie and Hope Mikaelson across from. Lizzie talked and talked, Josie listened, occasionally chipping in while Hope watched the two lazily, biting into an apple half a second later. Beside Hope was Landon, who murmured quietly to Rafael, who sat beside Lizzie.

The whole table seemed like a mismatched table. Landon, she admitted, she didn’t know very well. But it didn’t take a genius to see he wilted beside Hope, almost bowing into her, at every brush and press of the shoulder. He, was there for Hope. Hope, however was there for Josie and Lizzie it seemed. Never a look tossed back. While Rafael only talked to Landon and Josie sometimes, his gaze always slowly drifted back to Hope, even when he was talking. It was nauseating. Watching the whole table throw hidden looks at each other like no one else saw them.

As if on cue, Josie looks over to Jade, laid back on her elbows, leather jacket below her, shirt riding along her abdomen enjoying warm bask of the sun. Josie lifted a soda to her lips. As the soda can goes down, a soft friendly smile dons her features, Jade can’t help but match it, as she sends the girl a small nod.

Across from her, Lizzie looks over her shoulder to Jade, inquisitive blue eyes finding Jade, then MG and Kaleb behind her, then Jade again.  
She’d talk to Lizzie first.

Finding Lizzie after classes is easy, with MG by her side. The hard part is convincing MG to let Jade talk to her.

“Jade, you’re cool and all, but you’ve been moody all day, how do I know you’re not just gonna snap on her?”

“I’m not.” She snaps, much to his avail. He sends her a dark look, as they move through the halls, heading to the library where she tucks away till dinner, watching more Netflix than studying. “I just want to talk to her.” She emphasizes as they descend up a staircase leading to the next floor. MG doesn’t look convinced, which makes Jade stop to face him fully.

He watches her carefully, making Jade lose some steam. “You don’t think I’d hurt her do you?” She asks, actually hurt, to which he shrugs with a grimace. “You just seem upset is all.”

She sighs, licking her lips before resigning herself. She’ll have to talk if she wants his trust. “I want to talk to her about the dreams. She was trying to check out this book-“ She pulls it out of her satchel, handing it over to MG. “When I got it originally. And I don’t think you did it,” she emphasizes carefully, “I think she may know why someone would do the spell. Or who.”

Jade doesn’t think Lizzie, alone, is powerful enough to do the spell. But if she’s working with Hope, however, that’s another story. MG takes the book and flips through it, before looking back to her, quiet. She sighs again. “I’m sorry.”

He crosses his arms. “For being grouchy, I’m just,” She looks away, tugging onto the sleeve of her jacket. “I’m worried about Josie.” She finishes in a low voice, gaze pointed at the floor, before looking up to find MG’s concerned eyes waiting. He steps forward.  
“Is she in danger?” Jade quickly shakes her head. “No, no, she’s not, we just don’t know who keeps doing this spell and why they need Josie to be asleep.”

“But aren’t they putting you asleep too?” She nods, his eyebrows furrow. “So, someone wants you out of the game too?” She shrugs. “Maybe I don’t think I’m that important in the grand scheme of things, but yeah, maybe.”

She tilts her head to nod down the hall, where the library leads, a silent request. He nods and they begin descending the hall with purpose. “I didn’t mean to accuse like that, I’m sorry.” She waves him off. “I get it, I’ve hurt people before-“

“No, I meant-“ He stops her this time, hand coming down on her shoulder to still her movement. He turns to face her fully. 

“Before you, Josie was with this girl, Penelope. She cared for Josie, a lot like you do. Except she tore down anyone she thought was a threat to her…even Josie sometimes. I didn’t know if you were gonna do the same.” Jade digests the information slowly, her mind first going to what type of girl Josie dated in the past. Was she tall? Handsome? Someone who twirled Josie’s hair and called her beautiful. Or was she devilish, more like Hope, snotty, a bitch, but not for Josie. 

“What happened to her?” Her voice comes out softly, more concerned than anything. Maybe a tad bit jealous. “She stopped fighting for her.”

Jade bites her tongue to stop a scoff from emitting. Whoever this girl was, she was an idiot. The worst type of people. Jade takes the book from MG’s hands, biting the inside of her cheek. “I’m not her.”

She says, eyebrow arching in a quick motion before she pulls the library door open and slips through. She heads towards the back and stops when she finds a window with the blonde Saltzman posted in front of, a milkshake on her lips, as she looks over to Jade, unimpressed.

“You can’t switch twins, if you’re asking –“ Jade interrupts her, tossing the book into her lap, narrowly missing the milkshake. “Tell me what you wanted with that book.” Jade cuts in. Lizzie’s eyebrow dwarfs as she takes the book, looking back and forth between the book and the blonde before she stands. “How’d you find this, this is off-limits.”

“I took it when your last night hookup distraction you.” Lizzie blushes red and MG scoffs behind Jade, looking away. “Cool,” She hears him mutter, as he leans back against the bookshelf. Lizzie doesn’t miss it, watching MG. Jade snaps to get her attention. “Book.” She points back down at it. “Are you practicing Cincillo?”

Lizzie looks back to Jade, a solid two inches taller than the girl with a fierce frown. “You think I’m putting that spell on Josie?” She rolls her eyes heavily, as she takes the book and tosses it back onto the desk behind her. “You’re stupider than Hope gave you credit for.”

“Lizzie, all I want to know is why you want the book,” Jade starts, stepping forward, soft blue eyes turning to daggers. “Because in my eyes, you’re the only one who benefits from keeping Josie asleep at night. Got some nightly visitors you don’t want her to know about?” Lizzie steps a half step back as Jade moves in, backside clipping the table. Jade’s head tilts, as her voice drops. “Hope?”

Lizzie pushes Jade back, causing the blonde to move a beat away, as she exhales sharply. “I wouldn’t do that to Josie.”

“Great – if you can give me a solid alibi, then you’ll be off my list.”

“What are you a discount cop?”

“I’m a girl who puts your sister first,” Jade responds so easily, she wonders when that became her one and only title. Lizzie rolls her eyes again. “I thought MG would warn you about what happens to Josie’s protectors,” She drawls, bitterly, eyes flickering nervously, as she begins to pack up her bags and makes a sharp motion to move. Jade’s arm flies out to stop her. MG is behind Jade but isn’t stopping her.

“Lizzie, Josie already thinks you’re involved.” She warns the girl in a firm murmur. Lizzie’s eyes lock onto her, unwaveringly. “I don’t care if you’re screwing Hope Mikaelson, what I care about is helping your sister get some damn rest before she falls asleep mid-spell and fucks herself over – or worse.” Lizzie’s eyes shoot down with guilt.

“Tell me what you know and I’ll take care of it.” Lizzie searches Jade’s unwavering expression, something brewing on the surface right before Jade’s eyes.

She curses to herself, hands balling into a fist. “I did it one time. That was it. I don’t know who else is doing the spell or why, but I only did it the first time and I-“

She blinks rapidly, keeping tears at bay. MG moves Jade’s arm off the bookshelf, freeing Lizzie from the small locked area. “I regretted it and won’t do it again. It was a one time sleeping spell. Just her, no one else.” Lizzie sniffles a bit, fixing her bag on her shoulder before quickly moving to leave the library. Book in tow.

Jade watches her go, with MG beside her. “What now?”

Jade fixes her gaze, jaw locking. “Hope Mikaelson next.”


End file.
